Auto Carnage - photographs by Matt Jalbert
drive on
Roadkill, Joshua Tree National Park, California

Recollection: Rise before dawn on a cold winter morning. Sleeping in a rented car, the passenger seat of a Chevrolet sedan. One thin blanket, cold. Ice on the windshield. Stale chocolate chip cookies and water for breakfast in the driver's seat. Start the car, drive out of the fully paved campground. On the road, I pass a murdered jackrabbit. Roadkill. Stop the car, record it. The sun just crests over the horizon, warmth begins. Drive more. Another roadkill. Photograph this one too. How casual we are about the lives of non-humans. I move the carcasses off the road, and drive on.


 

exuberance > photographs © Matt Jalbert 2000