CAROL HIGHSMITH'S AMERICA

After spending her life on the road, Carol Highsmith has set about creating a legacy for the ages  

- Kim Bunermann

Tell us how you got into T photography and what inspired you? In 1979, I was taking a class in photography at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, and visited the abandoned Willard Hotel, two blocks from the White House, to take what proved to be haunting images for a class project. I spent several days there, shooting the devastation in black-and-white film. I then decided to ask the company if I could continue to document its restoration into a world-class hotel. I worked in the historic Willard Hotel for about two years, until it was fully restored.

Carol M. Highsmith

Carol Highsmith is a US-based photographer with a clear mission: to document America and Americans for posterity. After attending the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington DC, she travelled across the USA with her husband Ted, photographing every state. She has shared this historical treasure with the world, donating thousands of her pictures to the national library.

To see more of Carol's work: www.carolhighsmithamerica.com

One day, the man who was in charge of the restoration passed by, carrying a mitt full of old, weathered photographic images. He told me they had no luck finding architectural drawings of the old Willard that would allow them to restore it to its original grandeur, and were instead using old photographs to show what the hotel looked like in 1901. He told me a prominent female photographer of the day had taken the images and that she donated her entire life's collection of images to America's library - the majestic Library of Congress. Her name was Frances Benjamin Johnston.