This is the rainbow-filled path we dreamed of as children. And now, before our eyes, it fills us with wonder and awe.

Filmmaker Daniel Mercadante turns rural landscapes into magical terrains with his long exposure photography series, Rainbow Road. The collection of images sees a multicolored neon trail illuminate the landscape and seemingly take on a life of its own, as it snakes over quiet hills, weaves through forest trees, and twists around street corners.

Resembling a real-life Mario Kart race track, the series was made using a custom-built lighting rig covered in rainbow-colored gels. Mercadante ran across the landscape with the rig while his camera—set to a slow shutter speed—captured the scenes, blurring the movements onto one long rainbow road.

Though Mercadante mostly works on producing films with his wife Katina (together known as The Mercadantes), the artist reveals that exploring still image was a welcome challenge. He explains, “After so many years focused on the moving image, I’ve struggled with singularly caught moments in still imagery—so I love how this project still requires images to be captured over 15sec-1 minute, so in some way they require the same passages of time that a shot in one of our short films might.”

So far, Mercadante’s rainbow roads have appeared in the Connecticut countryside and Guatemala. The artist hopes to continue the series in locations across the world.

The collection of images sees a multicolored neon trail illuminate the landscape and seemingly take on a life of its own, as it snakes over quiet hills, weaves through forest trees, and twists around street corners.

Resembling a real-life Mario Kart race track, the series was made using a custom-built lighting rig covered in rainbow-colored gels.