Painter Turned Photographer’s ‘Waffle House Vistas’ Captures Overlooked Places
In the hustle and bustle of modern everyday life, sometimes it’s nice to slow down and appreciate the world around you, and that’s exactly what photographer Micah Cash does. In photographing the mundane everyday as a landscape, Cash finds beauty in overlooked places, particularly with his recent series, Waffle House Vistas.
Cash was kind enough to share his insights into his unique projects with PetaPixel for a glimpse into the mind of a fine artist.
Micah Cash’s Journey From a Painter to Photographing Waffle House Restaurants
If you’re wondering how Micah Cash came to be a photographer of Waffle Houses, it began with his first career, as a painter with an MFA from the University of Connecticut. To inform his paintings, Cash used photographs for reference as well as documentation of his process. However, while traveling across Tennessee in 2013, his reference photos for a suite of paintings about hydroelectric dams quickly turned from part of the process into the actual finished objective. With the fine-tuned eye of an artist through his painting experience, he recognized the truth in capturing scenes exactly as they are, no paintbrush required.
“I realized that there were narratives I wanted to explore that couldn’t necessarily be expressed in how I used painting. So I began making photographs,” Cash explains. “That inquiry grew and those photographs turned into my first [photography] book Dangerous Waters: A Photo Essay on the Tennessee Valley Authority.”
This first book helped shape Cash’s early photography career and solidified his identity as a fine artist and photographer. He applied his experience and creative process from his formal fine art and painting training to his photography through careful reflection. Combining his skills elevates photos of everyday locales beyond a simple snapshot. Cash’s photos are thought-out, fully-planned projects, including photo essays and books.
‘The Built Environment’
To Cash, the subjects of his work are what he calls “the built environment, and economics, representing those themes through the languages of landscape and architecture.” His photographs are at times poignant, other times inquisitive or informative, but all utilize everyday places or scenarios as meaningful metaphors to which he can be accurately called a “documentarian,” however, he prefers to forgo labels.
“Labels can be misleading, and I’ve heard people describe my work in a variety of ways, but I tend to call myself a conceptual landscape photographer. But my definition of landscape includes all the components of what is seen interacting with the land: the built environment, the people within it, and the signifiers that the land is cultivated and utilized for some purpose. I’m rarely making escapist vistas.”
Cash continued, “Creatively, my process always begins with questions. Why is that space,place, [or] landscape like that? Who owns it? Why are there so many people here? Why does it make me feel a certain way? Then I dig into those questions and look for the narratives that speak to us as a society. My role is to ask questions rather than provide answers.”
A Straightforward Approach to Cameras and Lenses
That kind of straightforward approach is also how Cash approaches equipment. When asked about his typical kit, he said that he works with what he has, brand or type matters little. If the project needs something outside his kit, he adjusts, preferring solution-based methods to problem-solving.
“My current project required night photography, so I purchased a 30mm f/1.4 lens. I also needed the option to occasionally zoom, so I added a 70-200mm lens to my backpack. In both situations, those additions changed how I worked and I did my best to leverage what those lenses allowed me to do.”
From Concept to Execution
Like his logical approach to gear, Cash’s workflow begins with a thought-out, methodical formula. It starts with the conceptual phase of imagining an idea for a project, which he describes to PetaPixel as: guessing, thinking, and initial research. Once he has that outline, he will schedule field work sessions to create a proof of concept, like dipping your toes to test the waters. Sometimes that testing is quick. However, other times his projects take years to complete.
“Can I create compelling images about this subject, or do I need to rethink my approach? If it works out, the fieldwork truly begins. Depending on the project it could take a couple of months or a couple of years, but my favorite creative space are those initial times in the field when I’m surprising myself and adapting how I work to best capture the content I want to. Once I begin to figure out what I have and exactly what the narratives are, then my remaining fieldwork is spent filling in the gaps and rounding out the project to its resolution,” Cash explains.
“Then I need time. Time to think about what I’ve made and time to distill the thousands of images I have into the handful that make the final presentation, whether an exhibition or book publication.
“For instance, my current project, which I’ve been working on since 2023 and am hoping to publish this fall, I had to sort through 30,000 images. Ultimately, I identified about 2,500 that I printed at the drugstore, then narrowed those down to about 250 images which I printed on 8×10 paper. Those final prints are what I used to create a final sequence for the publication, aiming for about 80-95 photographs.”
Surprisingly, he does not identify culling through so many images to curate his final selection as his greatest challenge. Instead, as many can likely relate, his biggest challenge is trusting his gut and allowing the process to play out.
Cash says there are also times when he sets out on a planned project, and just by being present and in the moment, the adage of being in the right place at the right time comes into play, and he will capture something special purely by instinct. Those organic images, rather than interrupting his carefully laid-out plans, are a welcome part of the artistic process of documenting real life.
And documenting real life is exactly what Cash excels at, as his work has been collected in multiple photography books and magazines, essays and projects, he’s made a name for himself with his Waffle House Vistas series drawing additional attention to his photography pursuits for its thoughtful simplicity. With Waffle House Vistas, it was the kind of moment that, as soon as he took the key image from it, he instantly knew it was the one.
Recalling the moment he made his signature image (shown above), Cash said, “I’m proud of all my projects that have been collected into photography books and zines, but even the best photo essays and projects need a signature image or two. The photograph, Store #1449: Calvert City, Kentucky, is the key image from Waffle House Vistas and one that I remember absolutely knowing would be a good one when I made it.”
“I was the only customer in that Waffle House, and it was mid-afternoon, right after a shift change. That particular restaurant had a lower bar area with chairs and for some reason I sat there. The server was the only person working at that time and we struck up a rich conversation about the local area, what he wanted to do with his life, and my project. I didn’t make a photograph for almost 45 minutes, and when it was time to get to work, the light was just right to get the stark shadows seen in the image. That’s what I mean about being present. In that instance, it was more important to talk to the server than it was to drink my coffee and make photographs.”
“This is when my painting experience helps. I’ve always been a bit of a colorist, so I have a knack for seeing particular palettes and color combinations. Compositionally, I think back to neo-classical and baroque painting, framing my subjects with naturally occurring geometry. My work can be operatic or cinematic, and I think much of Waffle House Vistas is that way, but I show you what I want you to see. Compositionally, I tend to pack a lot of information into my images, forcing viewers to slow down and enter the frame for longer than they might be accustomed to.”
From accomplished painter to equally renowned photographer, Micah Cash is documenting contemporary scenes in a new light, drawing viewers into his world where time runs a bit slower, slow enough to make you breathe and give you space to think.
What’s Next for Micah Cash?
“I’m always looking to explore new content and grow as an artist, but the images need to be good. To be rich and surprising to both me and the viewer. My aspiration is to not be afraid of new techniques, but instead to get a bit uncomfortable with what I’m doing so that I can harness that energy and anxiety into something unique,” Cash says.
“I’m excited to get my new project about Walt Disney World out there and to have conversations about it. While it is quite different than Waffle House Vistas, it has visual and conceptual threads in common with that project. It has been a lot of work and I’m quite proud of it.”
To keep up with Cash’s work or book projects, he can be found on Instagram and BlueSky as well as his website.
Image credits: Micah Cash
