Father-and-Son Road Trip: Photographing America’s Libraries

Share on Facebook

“When he walks into a library you can see that he instantly feels more relaxed; it’s just part of who he is at this point in his life,” says photographer Robert Dawson of his son, Walker, who accompanied him on an 11,000-mile road trip last summer while he took pictures of 189 libraries in 26 states—all in just eight weeks.

The idea of documenting what he calls “this precious American resource” took root 17 years ago, says Dawson, who has been taking Walker to the library since he was a little tyke. The idea of celebrating and examining libraries as “An American Commons”--what they are and how important they are to the country--was a back-burner project until three years ago. Now it’s close to completion, “with just a few states left to visit in the upper Midwest.”

“My son is 21 now, a junior at the New School in New York and very interested in socio-political issues,” Dawson says. “He and I actually collaborated quite closely on the agenda and deciding where we went. He did a lot of research on ethnic groups, poverty and the way different parts of our country regard government.”

“We’ve gone to a number of places together over the years, including Guatemala and Iceland,” Dawson notes, “but this is the first time we’ve done this much together, almost as a team. Seeing my son now with a couple years of college under his belt--he is focused. This trip is the first time we were really focused, together, on the agenda and itinerary.”

Both father and son wanted to visit some of the poorest areas of the country, such as the Mississippi Delta, and they wanted to approach the public libraries in those communities without a lot of preconceptions. “The Yazoo City library in Mississippi was like something out of a Faulkner novel,” says Dawson, “yet the library has a strong presence in this little, mostly African-American town; it was very vital and the staff made it so.”

“They also had a solid sense of who and where they were in the public library in Clarksdale,” also in Mississippi, says Dawson. “The night before our visit, we had gone to a blues club, Ground Zero, which was started by actor Morgan Freeman. We heard one of the best blues guitarists I’ve ever heard--he brought the house down.” The next day, “I walked into the library and there he was, Philip M. Carter, a reference librarian.”

As a teacher of photography at Stanford University in California, Dawson has worked for much of his career “on things that we share as Americans.” He says libraries have changed a great deal during the 17-year germination of the project. “They have been very flexible, and they are less about books and more about community,” but they are still “a critically important aspect of the shared commons that we have in this country.”

“Libraries are all local, and I am trying to look at it from a national perspective,” Dawson observes. “What struck me most is the vitality of libraries; they are all used a lot, partly because of access to computers, and poor people don’t necessarily have that at home. The vitality is the one thing that unified almost all the libraries that I went to.”

To what extent does the building make the library? “The buildings reflect their communities,” Dawson says. “The two that we visited in Mississippi are very old, while San Antonio, Texas, has an outstanding new library, very big and vital, like the city of San Antonio.” The Dawson duo also visited some Carnegie libraries and found that many have effectively transformed their old buildings into facilities that represent what the city is today. Oakland, California, he says, is a good example. “They have done this amazing job of keeping the old architecture yet imbuing the interior with images that reflect the lives of today’s largely African-American residents.”

Dawson says he has tried to instill a love of libraries in his son because his own experience as a child was so positive. “Growing up, the public library made me realize there was a bigger world out there,” he says. “It was the key to my imagination and sense of what the world is. It’s almost a universal thing. I think it's one reason why people have a positive view of libraries.”

Dawson says librarians need “someone who’s not a librarian advocating for libraries and their place in our culture,” and he sees himself that way.

Some of Robert Dawson's photographs from the trip are displayed in the slideshow below.  To see (and read) more visit Robert Dawson's blog at libraryroadtrip.wordpress.com.

Article illustration:Library Built by Ex-Slaves Allensworth, Calilfornia. © Robert Dawson.

Recommended resources @ your library:

The Library: An Illustrated History
by Stuart A.P. Murray
Incorporating beautiful illustrations, insightful quotations, and descriptions of many marvelous libraries, this book offers a wealth of knowledge and enjoyment, taking readers on a compelling and informative journey through the dynamic history of our beloved libraries.

The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World
by Guillaume de Laubier and Jacques Bosser
Architectural photographer de Laubier takes the reader on a tour of 23 of the world's most historic libraries, representing 12 countries and ranging from the baroque splendor of the Institut de France in Paris to the Renaissance treasure-trove of the Riccardiana Library in Florence.