A photographer’s 7,200-mile journey following the mighty Mississippi

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post photojournalist Michael S. Williamson enjoys a good road trip. Either for work or pleasure, he has often crisscrossed the country, repeatedly tackled the transcontinental Lincoln Highway and driven Route 66 at least a dozen times. But until he started photographing infrastructure along the Mississippi River, Williamson had never undertaken any extensive north-south journeys. “I was up for the challenge of following a waterway versus a roadway,” he said.