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I've Got the Soul If You've Got the Body Damage: My Analogue Shots of Autos

Nov 29, 2023

A brief introduction to the following analog images shot between 2017-2022;

My first word was “car”.

As a small child, I got in serious trouble for taking the pristine and prized vintage Ferrari models that sat behind glass in the living room for a spin in the sandbox while no one was paying attention. After their road rally through the dunes, I threw them into the swimming pool to see if they’d float.

They didn’t—My first car wreck. And I walked away from it.

At seventeen, I handed over two grand cash for a 1965 Oldsmobile 442 at an auction in Long Beach. The car was far from perfect, but it looked like it had seen some things and spoke to me. It was perfectly imperfect. A missing badge, a rough paint spot on the hood, and a coat hanger fashioned to keep the glove box latch in position made it feel like a car bought secondhand in Peckinpah’s Getaway. When the paperwork was done, and the keys were given over, I realized I didn’t know how to drive a stick. Next, I was given the world’s shortest lesson by one of the auction officials and left to my own devices within 30 seconds. I drove the 442 home at rush hour in stop-and-go back to L.A. while trying to get the AM radio to land on anything as I periodically missed the clutch while shifting gears, causing the burnt red Olds with black bucket seats to lurch and cut out while being honked at by angry people trying to get home for dinner.

I just went with it and eventually landed Jump into the Fire on the radio between hitting the low gears while moving at a near crawl, at the time a song I only knew as the soundtrack to Ray Liotta’s cocaine-induced paranoid F.B.I. helicopter vs. Cadillac chase in Goodfellas.

That’s probably how this started.