Across Texas: Panoramic Film Photographs from Glasstire Road Trips

I’ve always loved a good road trip. There is something freeing about getting in a car and driving across the open roads of Texas with nothing but the highway and sky ahead of you. So, when I joined the Glasstire team in December 2021, the expectation of regular travels was the icing on top of an already exciting opportunity. In my first year, my travels included trips to Houston, Austin, the Texas Panhandle, East Texas, and Marfa, with unofficial trips to Nice, France and Washington, D.C.

Jessica Fuentes, "William Sarradet and Jon Revett on Amarillo Ramp," 2022

Jessica Fuentes, "Gray Judds," 2022 at The Chinati Foundation.

Jessica Fuentes, "Cote d'Azur," 2022.

As an active photographer for 25 years, anytime I travel I have a camera with me. For the entirety of my photographic practice, that camera has been a Minolta X-370. Over the years, it has come to be an extension of myself. I do have other cameras that I love, including a plastic Holga and an Ondu wooden pinhole camera, both of which use 120 film. But, earlier this year when I was picking up film from my local lab, a Hasselblad XPan caught my eye — a 35mm film camera with all the controls of my Minolta, but the beautiful cinematic panoramic capabilities of my other beloved cameras. I didn’t know that it was missing from my life until it was right in front of me. 

I rented the camera for a day to test it out and immediately went back to make the official purchase. The XPan has come with me on all of my Glasstire road trips this year, including visits to South Texas, San Antonio, El Paso, Marfa, Houston, and Galveston. Looking through the XPan’s viewfinder has been an exciting way to experience the various regions of our massive state, where the landscapes are as unique as the people I’ve met and the artworks I’ve seen along the way. 

Here are a dozen of my favorite shots so far.

Jessica Fuentes, “Fort Worth Texas Barrier,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Laredo wall,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “McAllen palms,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Space X,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Corpus Christi fog,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Between Marfa and Alpine,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Texas sky,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Sala Diaz Compound House,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Christian Cruz before ‘The Piñata Dance,'” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Cande Aguilar performs ‘De Uvalde al Cielo,’” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Foggy Galveston sunset,” 2023.

Jessica Fuentes, “Galveston,” 2023.