Deuce & A Quarter

Deuce & A Quarter – In 1999, Corinne Day was paid to take a road trip to Texas. She spent most of her budget on a car, the rest on our flights, and four of us piled into that car and just drove from Houston to Austin. We followed the Llano River, stayed in a hotel where Bonnie and Clyde once stayed, and ended up in a dusty, shady little town right on the Mexican border. Corinne’s friend, Susie Babchick, is from Texas and she helped organize everything. Rosemary Ferguson was the model chosen because she was very relaxed and casual. And Corinne asked me to go with her and help her.

My role was very vague. I wasn’t there to be a model or a photographer’s assistant per se, but I was going to be in the pictures and help. They wanted me to drive, and thought I would be fine if the car broke down. Corinne made her own photos, with her own vision of the trip. But my book is about women together, having an adventure. We didn’t have a phone with us, we just felt very free, and untraceable. Nobody knew where we were.

It’s about four women, traveling, doing some pretty dangerous things at times, but mostly making a mess. No one fell, no one got hurt, there was no disaster, and they don’t die at the end like Thelma and Louise. They just have a lot of fun! Of course, there was also Texas: the gun culture and the cars. We ended up at this place where there was a parade of cars and I got in the back of a car with these Chicanos called Los Magnificos. It could have been risky, I guess, but they were very proper with me, and so proud of their car! I was mostly interested in remembering what was going on and how we felt. All three girls really relaxed through my eyes. There is one photo in particular where two of them are lying on the beach, naked, and there is no awkwardness there, no traditional “sexualizing” male gaze.”