Channel 19

Citizens' Band Radio is a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals generally on a 40 channel band used for business as well as personal communications. Channel 19 in the United States is reserved for communications between America's truck drivers. The above image is the Cobra cb radio we purchased for our truck and our new life on the road.

In 2007 we began this project intrigued by the trucking culture. The initial idea was to photograph friends of friends who were drivers and drive to truck stops and ask if we may take their portrait. We were afraid from that approach (though there is absolutely nothing wrong with it) that we would never fully understand the life and culture behind driving a tractor-trailer. That our images may be short of our intent of humanizing a stereotyped way of life.

In the spring of 2007 we rode with Frank's father, an owner-operator, for over a month trying to understand what it feels like to be in a truck. The following year we ourselves became truck drivers leaving our jobs, family, friends, and home. We found ourselves in a school upstate NY for CDL training. Two weeks later we were training with one of our country's largest truck companies. Now we have our own rig enjoying the freedom of the road, employed to transport and deliver our nation's goods all over this vast landscape.

We hope you enjoy our future posts on this digital journal which serves to document this process of creating our new body of work and our daily lives as OTR (over the road) drivers. As we find ourselves in different places each day, so too will be our journey.