Marissa Gawel

Based in Detroit, Michigan, photographer and journalist Marissa Gawel holds a bachelor’s degree in global health from the University of Michigan. In the summer of 2015, she received a National Geographic Young Explorers grant to document the creators of roadside attractions. She drove 3,000 miles around the middle of the United States to gather stories from the individuals who have opened their homes and passions to the public, which resulted in her project “American Attraction.” Aiming to renew interest in the people who are populating their cities and towns with extraordinary architecture, world records and otherwise unimaginable collections, her work documents this nostalgic landscape of roadside America that many of us have passed through at some point in time.