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Roy Stryker hired Esther Bubley as a darkroom assistant at the Office of War Information in Washington, D.C., in 1942 and subsequently charged her with photographing America. Initially working on Bus Story to showcase long-distance bus travel as a contribution to the war effort, Bubley extended her engagement with the theme when she joined Stryker’s team of photographers working for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Assigned to document “how oil seeped into every joint” of the country, Bubley continued her focus on portraying everyday people she encountered. The man puffing on a cigar and his companion wearily keeping an eye on her packages in a Greyhound Bus terminal waiting room offer a study in contrasts, as do the expressions on the faces of the young girls anticipating the return of the bus their father is driving.

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