Arts & Entertainment
Why a Photojournalist Felt Called to Document the Reality of Life Along Route 66
What’s more classic Americana than Route 66?
It’s one of the country’s original highways, starting in Illinois and running through the Midwest, Southwest and into California. But Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Edward Keating didn’t take such a rosy view of the roadway.
“It was really important for him not just to document the vistas and the beautiful backdrops of Route 66 from Chicago to L.A., but really document the people, many of whom were left behind, people that moved here with so many hopes and dreams, and a lot of those dreams were shattered,” said his daughter Caitlin Keating, a journalist and documentary filmmaker. “He wanted to document the reality of this highway, not just ‘get your kicks on Route 66.’”
A one-off assignment to photograph Route 66 turned into a years-long labor of love. Now, his work highlighting a more complicated side of the highway memorialized in that famous tune is being shown at Uptown’s Chicago Center for Photojournalism, 1226 W. Wilson Ave.
And for Keating, Route 66 wasn’t just a highway. It was a place to heal while he was on the road during a chaotic time in his life.
“He was about 21 years old, with a major drinking problem, just finding himself on Route 66. And it was the place that he really hit rock bottom,” Caitlin Keating said. “But at the same time, not too long after that, on Route 66 he put his life back together.”
He got sober and made a career as a photographer. Edward Keating spent years on the staff of the New York Times. He worked for weeks at Ground Zero as part of its Pulitzer Prize-winning photography team.
“It was nice to have that acknowledgement, but that’s never why he did it,” his daughter said. “He covered the Kosovo war. He was always running after tough things in life because he just felt like someone had to document it, and he felt like it had to be him.”
One of those things Keating felt called to document was the reality of Route 66. From 2000 to 2011, he made multiple trips, traveled thousands of miles and took tens of thousands of photographs.
“He actually didn’t even develop a lot of the work. He always said that the best part about photography for him was actually taking the picture, not even actually seeing the image in the end,” Caitlin Keating said.
In 2018, Keating published the book “Main Street: The Lost Dream of Route 66.” He died in 2021 at age 65 of cancer he believed was from exposure to toxic dust at the ruins of the World Trade Center.
“Before that, he stressed how important it was for him to show this work, especially along Route 66,” Caitlin Keating said. “Because this work, he said when he published it in the book, he didn’t own it anymore.
The Chicago stop is one of several exhibitions along Route 66 organized by his daughter, as well as Caitlin’s mother and Keating’s wife Carrie Boretz, also a photographer. Caitlin Keating says bringing her father’s work to galleries along the historic highway offers a chance to show the realities of lost jobs, limited opportunities, struggling small towns – and, the sense of hope and humanity that pervades even the most challenging pictures.
“Some of these images are really hard to look at,” she said. “I just hope that people really still take the time to look and don’t turn away, because if we do, we’re going to forget about the past.”
Seeing the work exhibited at a gallery in the city where Route 66 starts has been emotional and rewarding for Keating’s loved ones.
“I got full chills when I walked in, because this is exactly what he wanted,” Caitlin Keating said. “It just means so much to my entire family. And the only sad part is that he’s not here, but we know that he would be so, so happy with how it turned out.”
“Main Street: The Lost Dream of Route 66” runs at the Chicago Center for Photojournalism through July 29.
Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg
