Prologue by Andrew Querner

Issue 42

Soon after arriving from their respective countries of Japan and Austria my mother and father would meet a birthday party in Billings, Montana in the year 1969. Much later, after discovering a cardboard, fold-out menu from the Big Boy restaurant that my father had kept as a souvenir, I began to wonder about my parents' first encounters with the American landscape. Before making my own pilgrimage by car to Billings from my home in Alberta I asked them to recall as many details as they could: first impressions, past residences, daily routines, people who helped, weekend excursions, news of the day. In tandem with a road map, the information on the list acted as a guide for when to pull over, get out and look. If nothing else, the simple act of making these pictures has given me a sense of the boldness they embraced in leaving home for the States and later, Canada.

Andrew Querner is a Canmore, Alberta, Canada based photographer.
To view more of Andrew's work, please visit his website.