She is used to doing her work on the catwalks of London and in places where celebrities hang out. But when life on the road called, art photographer Anne-Marie Michel responded—a decision that took her career in an unexpected direction.
It all began as a “passion project.” Michel’s interest in the day-to-day lives of female truck drivers led her to seek out women drivers and ask about their stories. But over the course of the project, her perspective changed. The more she learned about their lives, their struggles, and their achievements, the more convinced she became that their stories needed to be heard.
That vision has become a reality. In 2022, she published her first book, Sisters of the Road, which features photographs of 40 female drivers and tells their stories in their own words. Earlier this year, Michel took the photo collection on the road—literally—embarking on a cross-country tour that showcased her work as a way to celebrate the many women drivers she met and photographed.
Michel was recently a guest on DC Velocity’s “Logistics Matters” podcast, where she spoke with Senior Editor Victoria Kickham about the book and her experiences creating it.
Q: Sisters of the Road is an ambitious project. Can you describe the book and tell us why you embarked on the project?
A: It is a photo book that contains portraits of 40 American women truck drivers. Their stories are presented alongside the photos, which include images of the landscapes they travel through.
I actually started this project as a personal passion project. I was just following my curiosity, and these were pictures I took just for me. And then it kind of snowballed into something much larger, drawing in this much bigger community of women who now share the project with me. It’s very much collaborative.
Q: How did the project evolve into this larger movement?
A: I had never met a woman truck driver—or any truck drivers at all—before I started this project. And when I actually met these women and heard their stories, I knew their stories needed to be heard. So they very much took ownership of this project with me. I took the pictures, but it’s very much them.
And so, it’s a process of getting their voices heard. We’ve used this art photography platform, where you have many eyes and ears there, and it just turned into this community.
Q: How did you find and then connect with the women you included in your photo book?
A: Women only make up 7% of the truck driver workforce, so, though I didn’t realize at the time, they’re actually really hard to find. I live in London, but for this project I flew to Orlando, where I started off by sitting in a truck stop for three days. Of course, lots of men truck drivers came in, but no women.
On the third day, I was standing outside my car questioning my life choices when I saw a woman getting into her truck to leave the truck stop. I leapt up and ran over there, waving my arms and trying to get her to stop and talk to me. And of course, she drove right by me—the crazy woman in the parking lot waving her arms around.
So then, I had to change tack quickly. I just talked to everyone I knew to see if anyone had even heard of any female truck drivers. Eventually, I found my first woman trucker through my sister’s high school friend’s neighbor, who had a company and who knew a woman trucker in Ohio. I drove there, and that was my first one.
From there, I began to gain their trust as they came to understand what I was doing and that I had true intentions. And then, through word of mouth and social media, [word of the project] gradually seeped out and that’s how I found them.
Q: To honor Women’s History Month this past March, you took the project on the road with a cross-country tour that celebrates the many women drivers you met and photographed. Can you tell us about the scope of the tour and the reaction you received?
A: Yes, it was an incredible month. As you said, it was for Women’s History Month. These women are a really important part of American history—women’s history. We started off in San Francisco at the Red Oak Victory, which is a big World War II-era ship that was built primarily by women. This is where Rosie the Riveter would have worked, so we took inspiration from that—we wore yellow bandanas and had a big launch for Women’s History Month. From there, we went to the Houston FotoFest, which is a big international arts and photography festival. It was quite a long drive to get there, but it was so great to make the journey with Debbie Desiderato, who drove the truck the whole time.
Next, we went to Little Rock, Arkansas, and had a celebration for Idella Hansen, who’s an amazing truck driver and is kind of the icon of the series—and also a famous name in trucking as she has been driving for 55 years. And then for the trip’s grand finale, we visited the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, which is an important event in the industry and one that drew a lot of women truckers.
Q: What did you do at these different stops?
A: We had a gallery of the photos built into a tractor-trailer that was pulled by Debbie Desiderato, the woman I mentioned earlier. Uber Freight was our main sponsor, and they put the power under the gallery. They were a great partner, perfectly in line [with us] because we both want to elevate and celebrate these women in the trucking industry.
Inside the trailer, there was a gallery with eight large portraits of the women truckers, along with video and music. It was a very immersive experience. And the book was there to be viewed as well.
When we took the tractor-trailer to the Houston FotoFest, the curators and gallerists were just amazed by the quality of the gallery that was built into the trailer. It very much had a “gallery” feel to it.
Q: I’ve never been in a gallery in a truck before. What were some other reactions you received?
A: Me neither—and it was a first for most people. It’s been fascinating because we have split the journey between the arts world and the trucking world. It’s very much a merging of these two worlds, which you don’t normally [see]. So, from the arts-and-gallery perspective, it was obviously just seeing the images and the art form. It’s already been around the world, as it’s also been displayed across Europe and Australia.
It was also interesting to have that arts perspective, where we had some of the women in the photos present with us, so they could have this cross conversation there.
Then bringing it to the Mid-America Trucking Show has been really great as well because it’s obviously a trucking audience and this is their own world—so it was a really important stop. Some of the truckers came through, and obviously they know the world these women move in, they know how hard the life is, and they were just in awe of the women and what they do. Take Brooke [Held-Sudimak], for example. Brooke hauls steel coils on a flatbed truck. And lots of the male truckers that came in were just like, “Wow. She’s an amazing woman.” So that’s really nice to hear from the trucking industry as well.
Q: What’s next for you? Do you have any plans for further projects in trucking or logistics?
A: Oh, I don’t know. This was my first foray into trucking and logistics. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but I have my eye on other bits and pieces, maybe even trains. I like freight trains in America. That might be something next—who knows?
Q: What have you personally taken away from this experience?
A: It’s been amazing. I come from such a different world. I was a fashion and celebrity photographer in London. I had never actually met a woman trucker before. But now, I have learned what inspirational people they are, what hard jobs they have, how resilient they are—they’re just really incredible. I feel like these are the people we should all be aspiring to [be like]. So check them out. Pay more attention there. They’re getting more space in the industry, and their percentages are going up. Keep your eye on them.
