Westward I Go Free, borrowed from Thoreau, is a collection of photographs from a trip I made this summer with three friends in a van across the United States. What started out as a photojournalistic endeavor turned into something more of a necessary escape for me.
I started looking at the 12,000 miles mapped out in front of us as a way out from everything in my life that was wearing down my adventurous spirit—my job, school, routines, etc. I left home with a few grand ideas—illusions maybe, but one truth that proved itself is the idea that we can all escape whenever we want, if we have the courage to do so. The photographs here are about throwing the map out, getting lost, connecting with nature and realizing what it means to be free. They are snapshots from a time in my life that I made choices completely for myself, free of obligations and responsibility. I spent two months living entirely day to day, sleeping on the ground in a tent and answering to no one. My hope is that by seeing my own adventure, someone else might be inspired to take some risks and do whatever it is that they love.
Christopher Mongeau is a portrait/lifestyle photographer from Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He has spent the past five years traveling back and forth across the U.S. and Europe in vans, buses, trains and airplanes, capturing whatever fleeting moments he finds important with friends and strangers. His most recent collection of photos shown here is from a roadtrip across the U.S. during the summer of 2013. He is currently finishing his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Providence where he lives, planning more trips and drinking way too much coffee.
