Roadside America by Ralph Gräf
Ralph Gräf is an award winning photographer from Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany. Back in the summer of 2009 he set about capturing some of the sites from his road-based travels around the south-western United States, taking in Arizona, New Mexico and California. Continuing in 2016, the images featured here document those journeys along the scenic byways where Gräf discovered abandoned gas stations, motels and floundering businesses that are no longer accessible from the current Interstate road system. In some cases, the modern roads have cut whole villages off from their lifelines, sentencing them to abandonment and decay.
Photos © Ralph Gräf