Image #1: 1959 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Convertible
The overall size of this car reminds me of a tank but when I got down low to snap this image, I realized how smooth and flowing the body line of this car actually are. The body line, mid-way, splits into two parts. The upper portion of the body is the taillight streaming out of the top of the fender. The bottom portion is accented with chrome molding. The way this corner looks is as though it is a space ship at a stand still, as though the car was frozen in motion. I feel as though flames will come shooting out of where the taillight and the backup light are located. It reminds me of a piece of clay as I look from the rear end to the front. It’s as though some took the clay and stretched it all the way to the front of the car. The depth of field seems like it’s at least 15-20 yards to the cars in the background. However, those cars in the background are only about 20-30 feet away. It’s like the front of the car is moving away from me.
Image #2: 1972 Plymouth Road Runner
The best way to describe this image is not that majority of the image is yellow but that its clean. By which I mean that there are no digs or dents and it’s like looking to into a mirror with wheels. What’s interesting about this image is the decal that was painted on to the car. The black blocks down the driver rear quarter panel that shows the Road Runner logo with the Road Runner itself. In the early 70’s, a lot of the muscles that were produced by Chevrolet, Plymouth, Ford and Dodge were designed very similarly. Because of this reason, I like the fact that the viewer is able to identify this automobile by it’s paint job and logo. If it were just an ordinary yellow muscle car, it wouldn’t have been so interesting to look at but its not. It’s a yellow and black accented 1972 Plymouth Road Runner, which is just as cool. I also feel with this image that with the angle of this image, that it’s slanted angle helps better understand the stance that the muscle car had on the road. The front of the car stood lower than the rear that stood slightly taller.
Image #3: 1960 Buick Electra 225 Convertible
Like most of the cars of this era, this was a very large car with a very large presence. What struck me as the most interesting part of the car was not the car as a whole but the front end. It felt foreign, something different, something that was just cool in a strange way, almost like an alien. The headlight bulged out the front of the car, staring at you. The fenders, above the headlights remind me of eyebrows, as they slant downward toward the center. Another part of the front end I also found to be human-like was the accent piece that is on the hood. It starts at a point and moves up the hood, getting wider and then disappearing into the windshield. With both, the accent piece and the windshield, it gives the appearance of a hairline and the top of the head. This car looks more human-like the longer I look at it and compare specific parts to the human face. The license plate hangs downward in the center of the chrome bumper, making it almost look like either a mouth or the bottom of the nose. It such an exotic look that it is hard not to stare at it and forget about the bright blue sky above it. The car just stares you down and demands a presence.
Image #4: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible
One of the most recognizable cars on the road, the 57 Chevy Bel Air, is sharp and bold. This specific one in the photograph is different though. It’s not red and chrome, but instead it is a black Bel Air Convertible with gold and chrome accents, finished off by a bright red interior. What makes this image so strong is that the I have captured the rear passenger side fender flare that display the smooth bodyline, the clean chrome the cars golden emblem. It is interesting how the emblem stands strong in the middle of the image and that the chrome piece just above it have been angled in such a way that it almost looks as though it is parallel with the with frame of the image. Another part of this image is that when I crouched down to take this image, I noticed that not only was the car dig free but that the angle reflected the clouds in the sky. There is always something compelling about the reflection of the sky. Every person has his or her own way of explaining the symbolism with the sky but it makes me feel as though this car is almost too good to be true. It’s like the clouds are telling me this car is just a dream come true.
Image #5: 1955-56 Chevrolet Bel Air/Nomad
What is compelling about this image is the repetition that these Chevy’s have created. There were only two colors but the vast majority was red. As a car guy, the Woodward Dream Cruise is the one time of the year where everyone can come together and show off their cool cars and trucks. This image shows that so many people share the same passion. But not only do they share the same passion, it’s the amount of people that intrigued me. I remember stopping to snap this image while my friends walked on. The way I angled the camera makes it look as though the Chevy’s never end, they just go on down the line. However, no two are the same. Each car is slightly different whether it is something as little as the fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror or as big as changing the front bumper and grill. This image shows how many people can have a passion or love for one thing.
Image #6: 1967 Pontiac LeMans
There is simplicity about this image that makes me want to know more. Although I can honestly say, I wish I drove one, I find that the face or the front of the car was what caught my eye the most. In most cars, not all cars, the orientation of the headlights is usually horizontal. On the GTO & LeMans models from 1965 – 1967, the headlight orientation took a more aggressive vertical look. The headlights look like you are staring straight down the barrel of a gun. It’s like the car is saying, stay out of my way because I’m packing some heavy artillery under this hood. What makes it even more like a gun is that the top headlight stands out further from the body than the lower light. The part of this image that solidifies it is not just the headlight display or the fog light in the grill but that the Pontiac name is display just above the grill and the GTO logo that was usually located on the driver side, is not there. This is best way to know whether it’s a GTO or a LeMans is the little details. One may think it’s a GTO, just by the body style but it’s the little details like what emblems are where and which ones are placed there. I like the idea that the own could have taken all the emblems off the car and any person could make the honest mistake of saying it’s a GTO when it’s not. Then again, LeMans owners could always upgrade their car to make it appear as a GTO just by changing the engine and emblems.
