Jeffrey on a billboard
Robin de Puy has photographed Jeffrey several times at the campervan where he lives with his mother, stepfather and 14 yapping dogs. She first photographed him when he was 16, and now she’s returned to his home in Nevada to put him on a billboard.
“A couple of months ago I had the thought of displaying the people I photographed on billboards. The subjects of my photos are dear to me, and in my eyes individuals who need to be seen.
In the past few days, I drove along The Loneliest Road in America with my dear (camera) man Maarten, Randy (who doesn’t know him), and Jeffrey (the icon in the picture) to see the billboards of AMERICAN people. Although Jeffrey’s first thought was cutting down the trees in front of his billboard - I understand you, Jeff - he was smiling constantly. ‘Something I’ll talk about for years!’
The road trip was so special, so sweet, so everything. A friendship developed between Jeffrey and Randy, we played pool, lay in the soft sand of the sand dunes, drank liquid marijuana’s, laughed and cried.
After a few days, the trip ended, and even though it was so incredibly wonderful, my heart ached - as usual - at departure. It makes me sad that I can’t be in two places at once. Being here is a part of who I am. I am here with family, as Randy always says. Sometimes I joke that I have created my own (other) family through my photography, but it truly feels that way. Leaving them feels difficult and lonely. It’s something I still struggle with after so many years. BUT, now there is at least the memory of being together on The Loneliest Road in America."
Robin’s series AMERICAN brings together film, photography, audio and now billboards, to ask, “What are the thoughts, concerns and dreams of the largely unheard people of America? See the entire project here.
Billboards of AMERICAN
Robin de Puy photographed ordinary Americans and put them on billboards.
"A couple of months ago I had the thought of displaying the people I photographed on billboards. Instead of the well-known icons, we could finally look up to real heroes by placing them on a pedestal. Where? Wouldn’t it be great if we could celebrate and unite these icons on The Loneliest Road in America?"
On this billboards:
Photo 1 - Christian (episode 4 - Some Real Cowboys)
Photo 2 - Dottie ( episode 5 - Jacks of All Trades)
Pre-order new book: AMERICAN
AVAILABLE FROM DECEMBER 13, 2024
Pre-order here: HANNIBAL Publishers
Launch new project: AMERICAN
AMERICAN” is a collection of audio, film and photographic portraits by Dutch photographer and filmmaker Robin de Puy. The series, which comprises 25 episodes, was created in the U.S. between 2022 and 2024 (last summer she created 9 new episodes). Her images invite us to look closer at, and listen to, the stories of a cross-section of people who make up one of the world’s most powerful, extreme and divisive countries, at a politically turbulent and poignant time. Beyond globally renowned celebrities and politicians whose voices and opinions we are privy to, what are the thoughts, concerns and dreams of the largely unheard people of America?
The project is available to view in its entirety now at robin-de-puy-american.wetransfer.com, an interactive microsite, designed by WeTransfer's creative studio, featuring never-before-seen images and conversations between de Puy and her subjects.
AMERICAN comes to life through billboards displayed along Nevada’s historic Route 50, commonly known as ‘the loneliest road in America’. These images trace the path of de Puy’s month-long expedition, embodying both the literal and symbolic journey she undertook to capture these deeply personal stories.
BOTTER for ELLE Magazine
The Unintentional Swim
On show in: The National Maritime Museum
February 23 - October 7, 2024 (extended till January 2025)
With the photography exhibition Rescuers at sea The Maritime Museum celebrates 200 years of the Dutch Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM). The exhibition highlights volunteers of the KNRM and shows who these people are.
Waters and More
15.06.2024 - 08.09.2024
Waters and more - Musea Zutphen
The exhibition Waters & Meer – Robin de Puy is on show at the Museum Henriette Polak from 15 June to 8 September 2024. Waters & Meer includes a selection from this renowned photographer’s recent projects Down By The Water (2022) and Waters (2023). The distinctive style of her work and the impressive portraits that she makes will appeal to a wide audience.
Emily, Twin Falls, ID
Emily (6), Twin Falls, Idaho
Drowned in dark thoughts I wander through a big Walmart in Twin Falls, Idaho. It is the intense gaze of a young girl that brings me back to earth. In times of despair the look of the kid is comforting as well as painful: the ultimate imagination of innocence, which only a child can show. Sitting in a shopping cart, being pushed by her big sister, the world is passing by.
I would love to photograph the girl. I nervously approach them, scared of being rejected. “Is your mom here too?”, I ask. “She in the restroom, but she will be back soon”, the sister says. Meanwhile the bright blue eyes of the little girl are starring right through me. I try to keep the conversation going, without appearing to be a creepy stalker. When the mother joins us, the big sister has already found me on Instagram and wants to take a selfie with me. Mom is keeping an appropriate distance and I see her – understandable – concerns. I give her my phone number and await. Not much later I receive the message I was hoping for: “You can come over.”
The name of the girl is Emily. Her intellectual disability sometimes makes things harder, but because of the loving presence of big sister Kenzie (15), brother Lucas (8), mom Ashley (40) and dog Piper she can move quite carelessly through life. In contradiction with a lot of struggling parents, her mom has, with the help of school and doctors, paved a way through the complex American bureaucracy with as a result a happy, healthy kid in school. “Without the help I could not have done it.”
Like a little kitten Emily plays in the grass. Continuously she is approaching me closer and closer, followed by running away or hiding in her pink jacket. Everything is sweet about her. Her light, fine hairs, the bread crumbs on her chin, the small hands which are holding a (still frozen) peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the nearly rolling tear that arises because of the wind and the accompanying booger
An innocent child. Freely she rolls through the grass and I roll with her. I want nothing more than to forget or not know – it works.