Texas Through French Eyes: A Road Trip in Photography

What do French artists imagine when they think of Texas? What happens when the myth of the American road trip meets the reality of Texas towns, highways, landscapes, people, and culture? And how does photography help us see the difference between the country we imagine and the country we actually encounter?

Join us for a special Virtual Café conversation: “French and American Myths Seen Through Photography: Texas Through French Eyes.” This online gathering will focus on the experience of French photographers Maya and her artist friend Pascal, who traveled through Texas in 2025 for two weeks, photographing the landscapes, roads, towns, people, and cultural symbols they encountered along the way.

The event will include a PowerPoint presentation featuring photography from their Texas road trip, followed by an open discussion about travel, image-making, cultural mythology, and the way France and America continue to imagine each other.
RSVP to receive a Zoom Link invitation to this Virtual Cafe that is being held simultaneously in Paris, New York and Houston! (A $5 contribution is requested)

[https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-cafe-french-and-american-myths-seen-through-photography-tickets-1990279026144?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://ex5qrcvab.cc.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001AjB8xmJj74Ex5IKCfKjh6OVOV0A6SiJLwA79Y8ZZGYC307b0RYMnCmzU7_YPLfC-QCykxFgTtsD3DSea0FHv-aQlidsoLWn49X87By6ItD1QmH-DoceU9ly__UmQCrUd-KyzSZ1-NSmzuxQ68d3vp1Cx5YXtZVQ5X-YXzDK9QsDPwU8stZyLUdJdcNP4QunRixxQHbRHialjpCTtY2MxGT1s-oPJ-eIDBBiU0NMU5dPC-PkuZyzC1IkF5EvSUp3zgH5lacLB5st4IgNxFzdt75h7RbwAIGMDS95HEgS6hoRmowJwudV4Gw==&c=oN_V89s664dACM2EBjZJiXTSOLdJ5fMMoSwR02KCvlljiOjCw397Wg==&ch=ybT2AeezeaZWH7nOM_6u2lzJ0uVo5FoFfQpNOrvvZ84rcgYI1gUP5g==)

The Road Trip as Creative Method

The road trip is more than a way to travel. It is a structure for seeing.
When photographers move through a landscape by car, stopping in towns, watching the light change, meeting strangers, and responding to what appears along the way, the journey itself becomes part of the work. The road trip creates a rhythm of looking. It invites improvisation, surprise, and discovery.

For Maya and Pascal, the Texas road trip became a way to enter the American imagination. The road offered a sequence of visual encounters: highways, roadside signs, buildings, open spaces, local characters, cultural details, and unexpected moments. Each stop became a possible image. Each image became part of a larger question: how does America appear when seen from the outside?

The influence of Jack Kerouac and the literary myth of the road trip will be part of the discussion. Kerouac’s On the Road helped define the idea of travel as freedom, restlessness, artistic discovery, and self-invention. For generations of artists, writers, and photographers, the road has represented escape from routine and entry into a more intense experience of life.

In Texas, that mythology becomes especially vivid. The distances are large. The roads are long. The landscape can feel cinematic. The symbols of American identity are everywhere.

Join us for a discussion with Maya and Pascal of the reality vs the myth!