Travel, adventure, and escape, they’re about stepping out of your comfort zone with a desire to gain exposure to news places, peoples, and experiences; sometimes, a simple trip can provoke life-changing events. During the 1960s, Jack Kerouac, a preeminent author of the Beat generation, writes about rebelling against the machines of government, big business, and social institutions. Kerouac’s road narrative, On The Road Again, illustrates how Salvatore “Sal” Paradise and Dean Moriarty embrace a bohemian lifestyle and leave the conventions of the status quo for something unconventional. From New York to California to Mexico, they embark on the great American road trip, offering the literary world a truly unequivocal piece of Americana. But what they give the reader is a sense of inspiration that life can be experienced in new, unfamiliar ways.
Metaphorically for the reader, there’s an adventure at hand by following Kerouac’s characters down the roads of their lives, leaving the safe confines of one’s home to be transcended into the abstract, a foreign place full of the unknown. They are the on- and off-ramps, forks in the road, and detours that force us around the highway of life to new destinations.
Even following an actor, like Gael García Bernal, throughout his career enacts a road narrative; we follow him on a voyage from the early days of his career towards his current destination. In Y Tu Mamá También, García Bernal brings you to the secluded, pristine beaches of Mexico to experience youthful teenagers and a tumultuous love affair. Throughout Bad Education, García Bernal drives you through both the urban images and sounds of Mexico City from which you, too, witness the lived realities of that city but also both a political and a pivotal peak of his career. And in The Motorcycle Diaries, García Bernal interacts with Kerouac’s On The Road Again; this time, however, experiencing a road trip throughout South America: departing from Buenos Aries into the Andres, through Chile and the Amazon, and finally, to end up in Venezuela. Whether reading along with an author’s incantations or traveling along with an actor’s cinematic experiences, travel, adventure, and escape are about leaving the routine and fixity of life for something undiscovered, something through which we can change our lives forever. – Dave Synyard.
Photographer’s: Lily & Lilac. Fashion Editor: Kate Corbett. Cinematographer/Director: Derrick Belcham | A Story Told Well. Make-Up + Hair: Natalie Blouin. Model: Hayley Campbell. Location: Le Scandinave Blue Moutain. All clothing available at select Bay stores.
Swimsuit: Carmen Marc Valvo Swimwear. Coverup: Diesel. Necklace: Expression.
Swimsuit: Ralph Lauren. Cover up: Free people. Necklace: Expression.
Left – Swimsuit: Blue Label by Ralph Lauren. Cover-Up: Free people. Necklace: Expression. Right – Swimsuit: Carmen Marc Valvo Swimwear. Jewellery: Expression.
Swimsuit: La Blanca.
Swimsuit: Blue Label by Ralph Lauren. Cover up: Diesel. Necklace: Expression.
Right: Swimsuit: Trina Turk.
Swimsuit: La Blanca. Bracelets: Expression.