American LeisureOriginal Photo Series

As a young man growing up in suburban Britain, Ben was inspired by the work of Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld, envisioning his own American road trip. Rather than visiting typical tourist destinations, he sought out the roadside America of truck stops, gas stations, and mini-marts.

In 2018, he rented a Dodge Challenger and embarked on a two-week journey across the Southwestern United States.

While many of the images he had envisioned came to life (some of which are featured in this project), Ben also discovered a landscape vast and varied, yet always marked by human presence. Unexpectedly, his focus shifted toward documenting these human interactions with the landscape—RVs, campers, individuals, and tour groups engaging in one of America's quintessential pastimes: leisure.

Images from the series have been published in two books: Everything is Narrative and Investigation in Infrastructure, published by Subjectively Objective.