Springsteen’s songs have been like a compass to me, teaching me how to navigate the American landscape. His music has inspired my interpretations and photographs, evoking dreams like no other. His songs are filled with stories and characters, and are rich in names, places, atmosphere and emotion — exactly what we strive to capture as photographers. Although he never uses the first person, his personality shines through in his work, just as it does in ours. The visual details in his songs are so rich that one might even say that Springsteen is a photographer in his own right. Work is a central theme in his lyrics: his characters, hailing from the unskilled service sectors of suburban and sprawling urban America, struggle to climb the social ladder, embodying the American Dream — the hope that the next generation will enjoy a better life than their parents. This promise has, however, proven to be painfully broken. Springsteen's narratives unfold in everyday settings such as car washes, auto repair shops, supermarkets, laundromats and diners, as well as in homes at night and in cramped spaces. The vast, grey sprawl of urban parking lots becomes a path to escape, with the night itself providing an escape route. In evocative night-time scenes, his characters travel along endless roads as if starring in an unending film where seemingly endless stretches of tarmac lead their dreams towards final fulfilment — or so they hope. They dream of leaving, yet they never do so alone — escape is better shared. Women, in particular, emerge as the cornerstone of this world: workers, lovers, companions, friends and mothers who are uncertain where they might end up or what this Promised Land might be.