As you may have been observing, the photographers of LUCEO Images have embarked on a series of blog columns in an effort to both further engage our readers as well as push ourselves towards personal and professional growth. My column, entitled ‘Transience’, was born from an attempt to push outside my comfort zone visually and hopefully learn something about myself and the world around me. So I picked up a an old Hasselblad 501c and hit the road. I picked a blindingly simple idea of photographing highway rest stops and drove across the country. As I spent long stretches of time alone, contemplating what I was shooting and how I felt, a new theme emerged.

That theme turned into an exploration of the roadside oasis that caters to the transient lifestyle of the trucker and traveler. This overarching idea includes the rest stops, truck stops, roadside motels, and commerce built around the transient lifestyle. I plan to hone and further develop the theme, and am certainly open to thoughts from you along the way.

This piece is from a recent drive for two days up I-95 where I found a true gem of a truck stop turned tourist trap. ‘South of the Border’ straddles the North Carolina/South Carolina border. The place is a dilapidated wonderland of motor inn hotels, tourist gift shops, a miniature amusement park, giant painted animals, a towering elevator/viewing platform shaped as a sombrero, a fine-dining steak house also shaped as a sombrero, and an indescribable energy.

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David Walter Banks is a photographer who is based in Atlanta, Georgia. His column, “Transience” appears every other Friday. He is a Founding Member of LUCEO Images.