“Some inequality of income and wealth is inevitable, if not necessary. If an economy is to function well, people need incentives to work hard and innovate.
The pertinent question is not whether income and wealth inequality is good or bad. It is at what point do these inequalities become so great as to pose a serious threat to our economy, our ideal of equal opportunity and our democracy.”
– Robert Reich
Roads to Nowhere is a photography project shot entirely by drone. It is a heavily researched exploration into the road infrastructure of the USA and how this infrastructure keeps us separate.
The photographs were all shot by Johnny Miller over a period of a month in September/October 2017. Cities involved, each with its own unique characteristics, go cross country from Baltimore to Detroit, from Long Beach to the Silicon Valley: Baltimore itself is home to the real “road to nowhere”, nickname given by the locals to an enormous sunken highway that was never finished, but displaced hundreds of families and led to massive blight and to a cycle of violence in the city that persists to this day.
Many stories are told by this project, showing cities and communities suffering from massive disinvestments, extreme urbanization, enormous issues with inequality among black and white people, and increasing homelessness.
This project stands as a record of the way infrastructure developed in the 20th century to disenfranchise those certain groups who were unlucky enough to be the wrong color or caught in the wrong neighborhood, crushed in the gears of progress.
