On photographing cars

When, why and how I do it.

I can often be found claiming I don’t photograph cars.

I can be very definitive about things, and I believe the things I say, usually, at least when I say them.

But the truth is more nuanced, as it often is. And since we’re talking truth, truth be told: in my mid-twenties I lived in the Bay Area for a couple of years (guess you didn’t know that, ha! And I’m still not American), and I would go on seriously long runs a couple of times a week in the hills behind my home. I would often come back with a snap or two of interesting cars I encountered, I photographed them with my iPod, and they usually made it onto my instagram of the time.

Here’s a few from way back, in my photo app, a little heavy on the filters, it was the early days of Ig after all:

However:

1. California is full of interesting cars,

2. it’s also flooded with fabulous light,

3. I was working with a major carmaker at that time (yes, I did that in one of my past lives), marinating in car culture all day.

So I indulged in the trope, and I did so very willingly. It’s when I moved away and found myself with less obvious car scenes to photograph that I started feeling like this was not me, and I did not care that much about car photos.

And car photos are a trope, in a big way. Some people take fantastic car pictures – take a look at Justin’s instagram, grid, he knows how to do it – and we can all appreciate the work, but, and this is especially true for film photography, we are objectively oversaturated with same old same old car photos. And cars are an easy subject, they really are… For that reason, I’ve learned to distrust the impulse to photograph cars.

Anyways, the reason why I’m here talking about car photos today is that I realized that this year I photographed more cars than I thought I had, and it got me wondering: what prompts me to photograph cars. When do I do it, and why?

Nostalgia

I’m getting this one out first, because it’s the weakest one.

However weak this driver is, I have to acknowledge it, because it is one of the major reasons that prompt me to photograph a car. We all seek it, the hit from nostalgia, and especially film photographers, so I won’t develop more than this.

I will say, however, that to me this is a weak-ish driver, and I feel that it produces weak-ish images.

I’m not saying that nostalgia is a bad driver, to the contrary, I am saying, however, that a good image (to me) needs more than just that kick of nostalgic dopamine and that extra something usually falls into two categories.

a story

This series tells the story of a town that still lives like it’s the 1960s:

The story can be a color:

Textures tell stories too:

The story can be about a place or a landscape, and the car becomes a support, to give it a focal point and provide some element of context:

Or the other way around, the story may also be about how the environment and the car belong together:

Which brings me to the second aspect that adds to a photo, so it feels more than just nostalgic:

people, or some sort of human interest

The story can be a person, and it doesn’t need to speak to everyone, just like any other story:

But even without that human story, the world is full of gestures, looks, moments, and sometimes cars support them or tie them together.

By now you probably figured out that I was mostly looking for a reason to put my car photos together – just kidding.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this article and found it insightful.

Also, whether or not you have a cool car, as you know by now I am a Madison, WI photographer, and I’m always interested in working with new project, people and their visions. Also, I can travel too. So hit me up, I photograph families, kids, babies, portraits…