Weekend Portfolio: Amy Parrish

Images and Text by Amy Parrish

Places I Slept is a series that documents life on the American road. From the perspective of a lone female traveling between coasts by car, photographs and extended journal entries reveal both wonderment and a disconnect from American culture after returning from several months abroad. Isolated environments are portrayed as both familiar and foreign.

The first few nights I slept alone in a car were rough. It took some time to find comfort; like softening the edges of a cupholder with a yoga mat, wiggling out of my underwire bra and getting back into it while laying nearly flat; and managing to get the interior privacy fabric to stay up through the night without collapsing down onto my face while I slept. Every noise woke me, as I hadn’t fully penned my set of safety guidelines for sleeping in public spaces.

These photos are proof of a journey and their pairing with text calls into question gender norms in a society that instills women with the fear of being alone on the open road— the very same muse which has been wildly romanticized for decades by the male gaze.

To find out more about Amy Parrish’s work please click here.