[.ca] Route 66 (ISBN 2851205625)

Chronique amazon.fr:
On the road again...4 000 kilomètres de Chicago à Santa Monica, 8 États et 3 fuseaux horaires traversés, la mythique Route 66 se dévoile à vous, mile après mile ! Freddy Langer, grand journaliste et Gerd Kittel, célèbre photographe, nous font découvrir la "route-mère" des Américains : l'atmosphère de l'ouvrage permet d'apprécier et d'observer cette voie de légendes... Steinbeck, Kerouac, Thelma et Louise, Easy Rider, Bagdad Café, ils ne sont jamais bien loin... La mise en page aérée et un papier glacé de qualité embellissent ces images "clichés" de l'Amérique... on avance de vieilles stations-service en motels délabrés, de fast-foods en villes fantômes, pour croiser bikers et autres belles Cadillacs qui nourrissent cette route, née en 1926 du désir du gouvernement d'avoir une autoroute s'ouvrant vers l'Ouest. Préfacé par Yves Berger, les textes regorgent d'anecdotes sur les lieux qui composent cet axe, et sur les gens qui y vivent... Effie, 80 ans et toujours serveuse ; Bob, l'homme qui voulu dessiner la R 66 ; Dot, en service depuis 57 ans dans la même station ou encore Angel, célèbre coiffeur de Seligman ! Une atmosphère parfois kitsch, mais la Route 66, même en désuétude, c'est avant tout une ambiance, un passé, des paysages interminables mais aussi l'histoire des gens. Un livre humain, beau, pour ne pas oublier et vivre pleinement le rêve américain. --Florent Lamontagne

Sixty-six in Kittel color.:
A super collection of color photos of America's Mother Road. I first came across Kittel's work in 1986 when I bought his 'Southwest USA' and the following year 'A New England Autumn'. As well as photographing the landscape he has an eye for capturing man-made America and as a foreigner that does not mean he searches out the ugly and the squalid. What I find so impressive about his work is the color and depth he manages to capture, you are really there looking at the scene as he saw it. The only other photographer I know of who also captures color in the same way is Stephen Shore in his 1982 book 'Uncommon Places' Kittel's photo essay of Route 66, in eighty-three (well printed) images captures the sights he found along the way. It starts with a spread of the morning rush-hour on a corner of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in Chicago and ends with a picture of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue in California, the photos in-between show motels, gas stations, shops and frequently the people who run them, road signs, landscapes and more. Actually just the sort of photos that you would expect to see in a book about Route 66 but not until now with this quality and beauty. Some of these images are quite stunning, page sixty-one shows the Munger Moss motel in Labanon, Missouri, with its huge neon sign, page sixty-four has a near dusk image of the Boots Motel in Carthage, Missouri, the neon strips creating a glow on the sidewalk, page 157 shows a street corner in Barstow, with at least ten commercial signs disappearing into the distance to the left of the photo In five sections between the photos pages author Freddy Langer's words cover the history of the highway in one paragraph decorative blocks. I think you can read better histories elsewhere and fortunately the text pages don't take up too much space. There are several general books about Route 66 but I got one recently that I feel is an excellent complement to Gerd Kittel's book, check out 'Travelling Route 66' by Nick Freeth. The publishers had the great idea of making it small (about the size of a postcard) but with four hundred, all color pages. It is a travelogue, state by state, with maps, of what you can see and do if you drive the whole 2,250 miles of America's most famous road. So get out there and get your kicks.