On the Road with On the Road

A photographic accompaniment to On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

Robert Frank’s The Americans redefined photography in 1959 and inspired Carl Moore to hit the road with Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Like Frank, Moore sought to reveal America to Americans—capturing the landscapes, faces, and fleeting moments that echo Kerouac’s metaphorical vision.

From Denver, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to a cross-country drive with his son from Santa Fe to New England, Moore retraces Sal Paradise’s footsteps with his Nikon in hand. The result is a vivid, contemporary counterpart to Kerouac’s masterpiece—where the photographs themselves feel restless, alive, and haunted by the same hunger for the open road.

As Jim Sampas notes in his Foreword, “It isn’t often that something comes in that excites me as much as this project.” These images remind us of the beauty and variety of human experience, the thrill of movement, and the quiet grace of stillness. Paired with passages from On the Road, they invite us to see Kerouac’s America anew—and to feel again the irresistible pull of the road.