Michel Comte: American Road Stories

Along the open road of the American imagination

"It was the age of innocence as they called it, and the roads never ended," says Swiss photographer and artist Michel Comte (born 1954) of American Road Stories, his vision of how America once was. The book combines found erotic images from the 1970s and '80s with his photographs taken from a car speeding along a desert highway, as the horizon, both physical and metaphorical, stretches infinitely into the distance.

Comte conjures up a simpler moment in America's history, a golden time when getting in touch with a friend or lover meant not reaching for an iPhone but dropping a quarter into a payphone. For Comte this is a slice of history where the classic American road trip and sexual freedom go hand in hand; whether nostalgic or voyeuristic, he leaves for the viewer to decide.