Evocative Photos of Lonely Roads Taken on Overcast Days

The road shows what is going to be, or what hasn’t still become. It’s a mystery in itself. Like this, the path as humans’ fundamental “ignorance” has a deep symbolic meaning, we all seek to know and also to dream about what isn’t known. Another key idea is the road as a “means” for men to go through nature by way of domination of landscape, piercing and cutting it. Men, as a microcosm, need to create artificial pathways to allow them to move through the natural world. Faced with a powerful nature, the human being needs a shelter; they need the artificial to catch the natural.—Carla Andrade

Roads lie down before Carla Andrade’s lens. Based in Madrid, this Spanish photographer explores the possibilities of this simple tenet in landscapes across the globe—one road in a field, tearing into the distance. This is the purest example of one-point perspective, and the formal conceit of a line disappearing into space is used as grounds to examine the differences between the landscapes of this ubiquitous scene.

Feature Shoot Contributing Editor Matthew Leifheit is an independent writer, curator, and photographer based in New York City.

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