Truck stop

In 1987, ten days after Marc F. Wise was graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in photography, he enrolled in tractor-trailer truck driving school. For a good part of the next six years he lived as an over-the-road driver, hauling freight throughout the U.S. and photographing the world of the long-haul truck driver. This remarkable book presents a rare glimpse inside the world of drivers and truck stops - a world most of us view but never really see or understand. The photographs of Marc F. Wise capture the nuance and sweep of this singular culture - the truckers, the trucks, the truck stop cafes and lounges - as he found it in every region of the country. With intelligence, a fine eye, and an immense respect for the subject, Wise transforms the trucker's commonplace reality into powerful and indelible art. In his fresh, insightful essay, Bryan Di Salvatore describes the trucker's view of the world: "You step into a car; you scale a truck. A cab floor is four feet above ground level; you climb on metal running boards, and hoist yourself with the help of any number of chrome handles into the seat. . . .The familiar swath of pavement seen from a sedan becomes, from a truck cab, a dark beam, narrow as a monorail. Other vehicles mutate, too, from that conning tower perspective - instead of banks of metal and glass encasing disembodied heads, they become sociological dioramas."