The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook Ariz. off the historic Route 66. This motel is one of the chain’s three surviving locations, in which guests pull their cars up to rooms shaped like tipis. Photos from Robert Brusca’s trip to the Southwest can be seen at the Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Gallery at the Benicia Public Library. (Photo by Robert Brusca)

In mid-2013, photographer Robert Brusca was going through a difficult period. His wife had been sick for the past seven years, and he was serving as her full-time caregiver. When she died in April of that year, Brusca decided to himself that he needed to get away. Where to? The American Southwest.

“I promised myself that after she had gone, come hell or high water, I was going to go on a trip, do some photography and try to decompress,” he said.

Brusca had been planning the trip while caring for his wife, and he finally made the journey in June. He visited all of Utah’s national parks, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and various locations in New Mexico and Arizona along the famous Route 66, snapping pictures along the way. His photos are currently on display at the Benicia Public Library in the new exhibit “A Trip Through the Southwest.”

Now remarried, Brusca and his new wife moved to Benicia from Santa Cruz a few years ago and was looking for a way to have his work featured in the library. As the natural beauty of the Southwest seemed to make for a good exhibit, he submitted an application along with some photographs and was accepted.

“A lot of my work is online, and I really wanted to share my work with the public, and this gave me a venue to be able to do that,” he said. “Now I’m excited to be able to look at other opportunities to be able to share my work.”

One thing about the Southwest that struck Brusca was just how grandiose everything was.

“The first place I stopped was Arches National Park (in Utah),” he said. “You really can’t photograph Arches National Park because the scale is so enormous. Things look gigantic, and the whole Southwest is like that.”

“You can take pictures of them, but it’s really hard to say ‘This is three or four hundred feet,’ when in the picture, it doesn’t look that way,” he added.

Among the images Brusca captured were cement dinosaur statues at Rainbow Rock Shop in Holbrook, Ariz.; the Mesa Arch in Utah at sunrise and a view of the Milky Way from Natural Bridges National Monument in Lake Powell, Utah.

“I want people to be able to see the Southwest if they haven’t seen the Southwest,” he said. “For those who have been to the Southwest and have lived there, I’d like for them to be reminded of what it is to be down there. I want people to be able to see the beauty that’s down there and see some of the quirkiness.”

However, Brusca feels he still has more to capture.

“I’d actually like to take another trip to take pictures of all the things that I missed and do another exhibit called ‘Part 2’ at the library,” he said.

A Trip Through the Southwest is on display in the Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Gallery at the Benicia Public Library through Wednesday, June 15.
The library is located at 150 E L St. and is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, and noon to 6 p.m., Fridays through Sundays.
For more information, call the library at 746-4343.

Sharing is caring!