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America as seen on the front seat

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Thanks for sharing this Interesting photo project.

The reviewer needs a very heavy-handed editor.

Is this a viewer's likely response? "American Interiors feels at a quick glance like a foray into the typological studies of the Bechers that have morphed into a Google Dream version of a nightmare that Hunter S. Thompson would have if he were around to see what is happening in the present field of American culture.: "

My own review might say "Check out these photos!" Then ask "What do you think the photographer has in mind?"

I'd also ask if at least some of the photos look staged.
 
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I enjoyed the author's style of writing. Thanks for the link.

"Yeah?......Well.....that's just like....your opinion man." - The Dude.
 
Eric Rose said:
It's good work in a specific genre. Maybe not AA's style but just as valid.
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I never question "validity" because the word has become a joke, generally useless, implying an unspecified preconception. (whew)

But I do think several of the photos seem staged, which in better hands can be a style in itself.

I suspect the reviewer read a recent MFA photographer's "artist's statement" before deciding what he was seeing.
 
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The work reviewed communicates an unpleasant message. It portrays the human condition of a sub group of our citizens - a group that we probably feel should be treated better than what we're seing. It makes the viewer uncomfortable. Maybe it even makes one think about...well about many things, issues and opportunities and failure....maybe even contemplate why / how we got here and what can we do to be better? Yes, I think it is very good.
 
Interesting thing to photograph, but not easy to reach conclusions about. I have seen people's cars that look like dumpsters - they are not poor people, but very well paid and sloppy.
 
Theo Sulphate said:
Interesting thing to photograph, but not easy to reach conclusions about. I have seen people's cars that look like dumpsters - they are not poor people, but very well paid and sloppy.
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I agree with Theo's observation about car dumpsters. I am friends with the local (non car-dealer) mechanic in my town. Some of the cars he gets in for repair are just revolting. Many of them do belong to people from lower socio-economic conditions. But some are from working professionals with decent salaries. Their cars are a bit better, but only because they are newer. They are clearly on the trend towards becoming rolling personal dumpsters. It baffles me. Interesting photos, and some wild colors on that GM velour.
 
I'm not at all impressed by the writing, but I'm curious about the pictures. To find out what the jist of the photos was, I had to go to the publisher's link about the book. I'm married to a veteran who is into cars yet his daily driver has some similarity to these (but not the "good" cars).
 
My cars interiors are really boring even though my daily driver is 21 years old.
 
ive seen cars like that and the people who have them/ i've seen broken people who
live in their cars that look like that as well. really makes me feel b/sad.
 
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A long time ago I worked as a Canada Customs officer at a traveller's port on the Canada-US border. As part of my job, I searched other people's cars.
Speaking very, very generally, I would say that people with messy vehicles tended to have messier dealings with people like law enforcement.
Not necessarily dealings with bad outcomes - just messier.
In most cases it didn't bother me, though I really didn't like the vehicles which had loose firearm ammunition rattling around on the floor.
 
Looking honestly at the photos, rather than projecting prejudices and attitudes on them, one can see that several of the cars are business-like, clean, orderly.

Like the cash, the handguns may have been placed (planted) rather than found. One appears to have come from a bubble wrapped package which may have been opened for the photograph. The small chrome automatic may however have legitimately been "found" in the car, perhaps under the seat. Few are stupid enough to leave a handgun where it can be easily seen .

The clean (but for paper towels) older car with the cane seems to be owned by an elderly person: the once "luxurious" fabric seats and the cane suggest that. Is the reviewer familiar with the reality of age? The hypos may suggest diabetes.

The writing is tortured. The reviewer is stretching. Struggling to seem sophisticated he misuses the term "allude."

If the clutter was actually found in the cars (rather than placed by the photographer) what we're seeing might be better understood with the archaeological term "middens" rather than with "art review" jargon.
 
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The interiors could be staged but I doubt it. The series is meant to spur dialog on what if anything should be, could be, done to help people who seem to be falling between the cracks. Especially veterans.

While you don't see handguns on car seats in Canada, you certainly do see the rest. Especially in WalMart parking lots. I'm certainly not is a position to make broad sweeping generalizations but in my personal experience with messy car interiors (basically a traveling dump) the person who owned the vehicle had some form of mental instability. Some higher functioning than others, but certainly in need of help.

Eric
 
Eric Rose said:
The interiors could be staged but I doubt it. The series is meant to spur dialog on what if anything should be, could be, done to help people who seem to be falling between the cracks. Especially veterans.

While you don't see handguns on car seats in Canada, you certainly do see the rest. Especially in WalMart parking lots. I'm certainly not is a position to make broad sweeping generalizations but in my personal experience with messy car interiors (basically a traveling dump) the person who owned the vehicle had some form of mental instability. Some higher functioning than others, but certainly in need of help.

Eric
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makes me wonder if in open carry states you can have guns lying around in your car ..
seems these days, its people who are DWB who are stopped by the po-po anyways ...
i have heard stories about being shot at while driving, and that was in the 70s when open carry didn't exist
none of it seems staged to me.,
 
Eric Rose said:
Did you read the article?
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Of course I did. I looked at the images first and scratched my head. Then I read the article and rolled my eyes. The article is psychobabble for why some people are slobs. Maybe I should take photos of clean car interiors as a counterpoint? Then I could get a sophomore psychology major to help me write an "artist statement" about the emptiness of life, and I would be well on my way to a gallery show. Perhaps my work would even be deemed "important".
 
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