Route 17N (American Night)

Photo-Video project

Series of 15 photographs and short films, 2007

Film produced and released in New York,
photo series produced and editioned in Dusseldorf

Multichannel video and sound project, HD format
aspect ratio 16:9, surround sound Dolby Digital 5.1

 

The title of “Route 17N” is symbolic – upward from the age seventeen, upward in life, philosophy, discoveries.  It is also geographically precise - the series was shot mostly on Route 17 North, in New York and New Jersey, though in some other locations as well - including Connecticut, Louisiana, and Florida.

Apart from its compelling “coming of age“ story, this photo-project pronounces a long-lasting spell over the liaison of photography and cinematography. Being composed almost entirely as film script (photographs are exhibited in a pre-arranged order from 1 to 12 where number 10 assigned to a pensive triptych “Burned Land”), but exhibited as still images, "Route 17N" is marginal in relation to what is commonly understood as movement,  yet it cannot be considered truthfully in terms of photography either. This series is best presented in its entirety.  As such, it is a seminal work combining photography and cinema, defying laws and definitions of both photography and film.  It presents us with an attempt to define staged plot in terms of a single essence, be that a photographic or cinematic one, and be it a fiction-film or documentary.  Tim White's images are read as interplay of paradoxical and yet dialectical forces.

 

One of the key images in this and previous series (“Awakening” and even “Before They Were Beatles”) is a yo-yo toy. Symbol of light-hearted play without the need of a partner, yo-yo secures position of an observer for the player, mere observer who has “the world on a string”.  At the tender age of seventeen, the literal yo-yo game fits well amidst the fireworks of desires, hopes and beliefs. A recurring image of yo-yo brings up an idea of playful attitude towards life, in all its seriousness.  This refrain marks the main character as the intellectual superior of his surrounding. An assessment of priorities takes off as he investigates the reality hidden in the darkness of night.  It is a photo story about a young man ascending into maturity and a symbolic entrance into a man's mature stage - beginning of the "exit". Characteristic in this sense is the photograph that employs the word “ENTER” as a centerpiece; the sign is attached to apparently dead fence and a locked-up door. Young protagonist leans against this strange “entrance” with apparent intention to use it as an exit into the real world.

Beyond this photo-project, the rigid lines of suburban architecture will predictably collapse in his memories and coincide with the collapse of his own American dream; owning a suburban house will not make him a king of his kingdom, but persistently enforce his longing for escape (photographs “Escape” and “Dreaming of Place Concorde”). And so the downward spiraling phenomenon of “American dream” – “Route 17N” sends messages from the road (photograph “Route 17N”)  by feeding the teenager’s need to reclaim some sense of purpose, direction and control over his life. 

 

© 2011