Car Culture

by Marla Hamburg Kennedy (Editor)

Photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, Bruce Davidson, Walker Evans, Ernst Haas, Hiroshi Hamaya, Andre Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Mary Ellen Mark, and Paul Strand capture various aspects of the automobile

72 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book whose title doesn't really give the reader any insight into what the book is actually going to be about. When my husband was given this book he thought he would like it since he was thinking about actual car culture with antique cars, car records, etc. Instead this explores the place of the car in 1930s-1960s America.

The book instead explores the car and its place in the American panorama since its arrival on the scene. As Gerald Silk from the Introduction says it is more than a car but a sign of hope, a witness of the times and also a statement all at once. And this can be seen in this hodgepodge collection of photographs.

Unfortunately I wish there was more context about the photos themselves since there are some that are confusing such as on Paul Strand's on page 23 where it's a photograph of a wheel but to me it seems like a bicycle wheel. Maybe it is just one of the really older models.... And then there is also the photograph by Meatyard on page 7 where something happened in the neighborhood to a house, possibly a fire, while the car although beaten up plays a silent witness of American resilience.

There is also nothing explaining Inge Morath's 1957 A Llama In Times Square or even less the Marion Post Wolcott photograph on page 59 where a bunch of older women are set-up on what may be a picnic in the middle of either the dessert or some salt flats. So many missing stories in this time capsule.

Although some background is given in the Introduction it really isn't enough for the reader to understand everything going on in the photographs. Add to this the fact that Gerald puts in his own thoughts about the pictures such as how he thinks Davidson's Couple In and Around A Station Wagon is a Bourke-White's billboard gotten out of hand due to perhaps just one unhappy kid out of a family of seven children instead of two. Instead an even better suggestion for the American dream gotten out of hand would have been the photo by Mary Ellen Mark on page 21 where the whole family doesn't look happy even though the open road stretches out into the background.

Otherwise there are a few photographs that actually do show history in the making such as the one on page 3 by Martin Munkacsi where you can barely make out in the rearview a horse-drawn vehicle facing a car. Or Henri Cartier-Bresson's rodeo picture where the car was hitched to the trailer before pickups took over being the cowboy vehicle of choice.

All in all it was a decent time capsule if you don't mind looking at photographs without context and one that would do more justice for American history readers rather than those who like cars just for the aesthetic.

[Grant Pratt Schweppe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very short book which does not do much to educate the reader of car culture. Although there are a few pages of introduction, this photo expose does little to give context to the images themselves which are sometimes obscure to see what is going on in the picture or any context to the significance of the pictures. There is no cohesiveness in terms of the order of the pictures or how they define 'car culture'. I would not recommend this book for 'someone who likes cars' or 'car lovers' or 'car photography', etc. This is a very scant book in terms of what it speaks to in the automotive world.

[Glenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me. I think I got more out of it this time around, probably because I actually read the copy instead of just looking at the photos.