Galerie Esther Woerdehoff: Drive-In
Drive-In is an exhibition that tracks the diverse interpretation of cars by numerous photographers from the 1950s to nowadays.
When Elliott Erwitt, during and after the depression era, photographed those rolling dreams with his candid sense of humour and irony, cars were already a landmark in the American landscape. In the early fifties1950s, when Swiss photographer Robert Frank, thanks to a Guggenheim fellowship grant, drove his car across America for two years, he had his family with him. The picture of his wife Mary and their two children, totally exhausted and half asleep in the car, is an iconic image in the history of photography. When René Burri travelled to Brazil to document the building of modern cities, one of his most stunning photographs, Sao Paulo 1960, is a view of the rush hour traffic on a busy street.
For photographers, cars are elements of decor, mechanical sculptures with their own modern aesthetic, frames that echoes the camera’s viewfinder but also boxes where small scenes take place between people as in a moving theatre. Drive-In presents these moments, through a selection of images from over 20 photographers.
Symbolic of the American dream, the rise of the middle class and of individualism through the whole 20th century, cars are consequently documented throughout photography. With the rise of street photography, cars were bound to peep into most photos taken. Still cars are photographed not only as a transportation device through the packed streets of cities or in the great outdoors emptiness but also as a travelling place of intimacy in the public space, where people talk, eat, sleep, love, in a ever moving home.
Drive In is on display at Galerie Esther Woerdehoff in Paris, France from Wednesday 1 – Friday 31 October 2014.
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