American Geography is a documentary project by photographer Matt Black. Begun in the photographer's native region of California’s Central Valley, home to some of the nation’s most impoverished communities, the work covers Black's first cross-country trip, a three-and-a-half month,18,000-mile journey across the US documenting some of America’s poorest places.

According to the Census Bureau’s measure of poverty —$11,490 annual income for one person or $23,550 for a family of four — over 45 million people qualify as poor in the US. At the same time, the share of income going to the top one percent...