Wes Pope
Wes Pope is currently a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Multimedia Journalism Master’s Program in Portland. He has worked as a photo, video, and multimedia journalist for over 20 years, including at the Rocky Mountain News, at the Chicago Tribune, at the Santa Fe New Mexican, at the Times of Northwest Indiana, at the Tri-City Herald, at the Tacoma News Tribune . He has also worked as a consultant for the San Francisco Chronicle . Before joining the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) at the University of Oregon, Pope taught photojournalism and documentary research at Northern Arizona University.
Alongside his journalistic work, Pope has explored pinhole camera documentary projects over the past 23 years. Claire O’Neill of National Public Radio described the Pop 66 project as follows:
"The images are blurry and distorted, much like memories, and the sequence conveys something akin to the America of our dreams."
Parmi ses publications, retrouvez :
Pop 66 : Une odyssée onirique le long de la Route 66 (PSG, 2018)
, notamment dans
la « Secret Design Library » de Google,
WGN TV,
Chicago Tribune,
Buzzfeed
, NPR Picture Show
"Pop 66: A Dreamlike Odyssey with a Can Camera Along Route 66"
Opening Reception: September 18, 2026, at 6:00 PM at Maison Amaia in Arles, in the presence of photographer Wes POPE
To mark the centennial of Route 66, Cultura Orquídea is proud to present photographer Wes Pope’s documentary project, created using pinhole cameras he crafted from empty soda cans.
Route 66 begins in Chicago at the intersection of Adams Street and Michigan Avenue, across from the Art Institute of Chicago, and has been a landmark since 1926. It ends in Santa Monica , California, near the Pacific Ocean, after crossing eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. This legendary 4,000-kilometer route stretches from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean, spanning three time zones.
To celebrate this anniversary, we are organizing two temporary exhibitions dedicated to Pope’s work, starting in Arles:
From September 16 to 20, 2026 at Maison AMAIA.
Opening : Friday, September 18, 2026 at 6 p.m.
Venue : MAISON AMAIA, 20 rue Armand Barbès, 13200 Arles
For 28 years, photojournalist Wes POPE has been photographing life along Route 66 using pinhole cameras Made from soda cans. His work constitutes a singular form of visual documentary: rather than recording a single instant, each image accumulates several moments over exposure times ranging from two seconds to half an hour. Silhouettes shine, become ghostly or disappear entirely. The landscape of Route 66 follows a comparable process of progressive accumulation, forming an involuntary collective monument.
As Route 66 celebrates its centenary — it was created on November 11, 1926 — it continues to connect opposite worlds: urban and rural, affluent environments and struggling communities, Republican and Democratic states. The complex fabric of American history unfolds through POPE's archives, which address in particular racial issues, the treatment of Indigenous peoples, recurring wars, the Tulsa Race Massacre and the ecological catastrophe of the Dust Bowl which displaced members of the artist's own family. “At a time when the United States finds itself at a crossroads, this project opens a space for dialogue and invites us to reflect on life in the USA — on its past as well as on the direction it might take.”
Wes POPE is a photographer, teacher and photojournalist born in the USA. A graduate in cultural anthropology and documentary film history, he was a photographer at the Chicago Tribune , the Santa Fe New Mexican , the Rocky Mountain News as well as for the CITY 2000 documentary photography project. He currently teaches at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in Portland, where he directs the master's program in multimedia storytelling. Alongside his work as a journalist, POPE has explored documentary projects; he turned to the very principle of the photographic device, pinhole cameras, with which he documented the legendary Route 66. Claire O'Neill, from National Public Radio, described the Pop 66 project in these terms: “ The images are blurry and distorted, just like memories, and the sequence conveys something like the America of our dreams ”. POPE is trained in cultural anthropology and holds a Master's degree in art, film and documentary history.
Curator: Claudia Isabel Navas
The exhibition is presented by Cultura Orquídea
With the collaboration of the University of Oregon, Wes POPE
and Maison AMAIA
until September 20, 2026.
Discover the technique used by Wes POPE
The project's website: popcanproductions.com
And Wes POPE's Instagram account: @popcan_productions
Venue The exhibition will be held at Maison Amaia, 20 rue Armand Barbès, 13200 Arles
Maison Amaia is a gallery-house located in theheart of the historic center of Arles
“A Singular and Plural House”
Press contact / reservation: contact@cultura-orquidea.com or at +33 6 76 41 21 10
A second edition is planned in Paris from November 11 to 15, 2026; additional information will reach you very soon.