Photographer Captures American Nomads Living Life on the Road
A photographer has captured Americans living their life in vehicles out on the road. Known as “workampers”, many of them are following their own version of the American Dream.
Photographer Timothy Eastman traveled across the United States photographing and interviewing people living in RVs and vans. He has now released a book of work entitled All The Past We Leave Behind.
Workampers are people who typically live in an RV or van and move between temporary and seasonal jobs. Often, they are people who had lived a more mainstream life but found themselves barely getting by.
Some see themselves as rebels and adventurers who have bucked the system and found a way to live on their own terms. But the lifestyle can be precarious, healthcare is unavailable or unreliable, and safety is a concern, especially for solo travelers.
“The idea for this work first came from reading the book Nomadland by Jessica Bruder,” explains Eastman.
“She described an America that I didn’t know existed, one composed of travelers. I was fascinated by the emergence of this way of life as something that, if not exactly yet mainstream, seemed to be growing in popularity.”
Eastman says that he came across a variety of people who had different reasons for living the life they do.
“Some painted themselves as rebels and adventurers, people who had bucked the system and found a way to live on their own terms,” he says.
“Some viewed their lifestyle as a pragmatic decision, a way of lessening day-to-day stresses and living expenses.”
He says some of the people he met were self-conscious of their situation, wondering if they were experiencing something akin to homelessness. But most were quick to point out the advantages of the lifestyle.
“A common fear was that I would paint workamper life in a negative light. They cited past media coverage that they felt was unfairly biased,” says Eastman.
“They complained the public had been given the impression that workamping is a life that one is only forced into by unfortunate circumstances.”
“This question of personal agency was a frequently raised topic of discussion. Most insisted that workamping was a life they had chosen out of opportunity rather than necessity,” he adds.
More of Eastman’s work can be found on his Instagram and website.
All The Past We Leave Behind: America’s New Nomads is available from Kehrer Verlag.
Image credits: All photos by Timothy Eastman.
