Picture Show: No Lifeguard on Duty

  • May 27, 20098:00 am PDT
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J. Bennett Fitts traveled some 20,000 miles to produce "No Lifeguard on Duty," an investigation of America's forgotten roadside motels. These vestiges of an earlier era-when families packed into their cars for summer vacations via two-lane highways-now exist in various stages of operation and disrepair. With their parking-lot-adjacent swimming pools prominently in the foreground, the motels reveal a decayed Americana and a near permanent sense of vacancy. However, beyond the cracked paint and the decrepit chain-links lies the nostalgia of life on the open road.



Colorado Springs, Colorado



Colton, California



Grand Junction, Colorado



Huntington, West Virginia



Inland Empire, California



Jacksonville, Florida



Mojave, California



North Shore, California



Panama City Beach, Florida



Panama City Beach, Florida



Panama City Beach, Florida



Salton Sea, California



Salton Sea, California



Undisclosed location



Victorville, California

View the complete series here.



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