Greg Miller: The Bus Stop Between Two Worlds | Alex Kreher

When I saw Greg's photo essay about these bus stops along rural roadways on TIME Lightbox I couldn't help myself but research this photographer more and look at his work.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, about an hour away from his home, Greg begun to see the children of his neighborhood and her own daughter who were waiting for the school bus every morning, in a different light. Now he was wondering if all these children kissed their parents good bye before they rushed off to catch the bus, and has he done the same with his daughter? Also, he started to realize that these kids "looked like apparitions or woodland creatures from a C.S. Lewis novel". So, one morning he just started to photograph them.

I am very impressed by how he takes such a monotone and daily, ordinary subject and captures these moments, that most Americans went through in such a beautiful way. I enjoy how he summarized each person in a single frame so perfectly. The relationship between subject and background plays a big role in these photographs. Not only do we see how each child is dressed, but also in what house they live in. You see the contrast between the driveway and the road, the mailboxes, the environment, the expression on their faces and their posture.
I can imagine that this photo essay really speaks to most Americans who once were standing at the end of their own driveway and were waiting for the bus. In Germany we do not have this kind of school bus system, so to me this is a foreign topic but I can see the power in these photographs.

I am inspired by his approach of finding his photo topics/subjects. It shows me that we are surrounded by interesting and great photo subjects, we just have to open our eyes and have an open mind and see things in a slightly different light or perspective.

Greg is not the first or only one who captured this topic in a photo essay, but the way he did it definitely stands out. (Ralph Morse photographed school bus stops in 1971)

It is treating each photo as a half portrait/half landscape photograph. And I think it is the right choice that he stepped back to show us the environment/context of where these kids live in. The curb in front of each drive way all in a sudden becomes a strange boarder between their home and the school world.