On the walls of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, a new exhibit displays an eclectic collection of photographs that encapsulates the spirit of adventure and the oddity associated with the American road trip.

Visitors to “From Here to There: Alex Soth’s America” will find a series of photos that caricature different elements of a journey. There is a woman with unnecessarily tall hair holding a picture of “an angel” that looks a lot like a cloud. Another photo shows a man holding a bobcat in his arms outside the semi-trailer he has repurposed as his home.

Another striking piece is a note written by Soth that reads, “I spent a few weeks driving around Missouri looking for the loneliest man I could find.” This sentiment is representative of both of the unusual subjects. For each of his projects, he wandered on a “free-associative scavenger hunt” allowing “serendipity and improvisation” to choose what he would photograph.

Beginning with Soth’s first portraits, black and white photos from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, the exhibit moves somewhat chronologically. Visitors can follow his personal journey as a photographer while following his literal travels to New Orleans, Niagara Falls, rural Texas, Missouri and some of the most remote parts of the Appalachian Mountains.

‘The Human Condition’ accurately portrays the human experience

Soth started his first trip from his home in Minnesota and followed the Mississippi River south to New Orleans. The results were thought-provoking images, like one of a well-dressed man with a coarse and weatherworn face, holding a bible and a palm after Palm Sunday. Another features a woman who just had her forehead marked with a cross on Ash Wednesday. The last is of a group of young people hanging out under a tree, draped with Spanish moss in a cemetery that lies adjacent to a basketball court.

These images are simple, but also full of juxtapositions and representations that invite viewers to invent histories for the people in the portraits. Although there are some explanations of the artist’s inspiration and methods, the portraits themselves are intentionally left without caption to give viewers room to interpret them.

In his most recent endeavor, Soth’s subjects are residents of Appalachia who have chosen to leave their communities and live in the wilderness. These people may be difficult to understand, but their ingenuity is admirable. The portraits show the bareness of their survivalist lifestyle as well as their ability to create habitable environments in an untouched landscape.

In photos of two homes that have been built literally into the side of mountains, viewers will notice that both have electricity. One homeowner even has access to satellite Internet. The contrast between the ruggedness and remoteness of the mountainside and the presence of modern technologies is both startling and whimsical.

“From Here to There: Alex Soth’s America” can be seen in the Main Gallery of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art until January 4, 2015. For more information, visit MMoCA’s website.