Just as every car builds its own character and personality after it’s found an owner (or vice versa), cities are also given their identities from the people who use them, build them, and live in them. The flavor, tone, culture—whatever you want to call it—that feeling you get from a city is impossible to attribute to any one thing, but the output of all those inputs is a place that’s distinct and at least somewhat definable. I won’t attempt any amateur anthropology trying to describe the places below in detail, but we can at least start by looking into the vintage car scenes that spring up among their population.
This week’s group is in line with that theme, so follow these photographers to get a glimpse of what it’s like to live with vintage cars in the modern age. We’ve done something similar before with a street-parked edition of this weekly, but this week it’s a bit more US-centric. In addition to San Francisco, Portland, and Washington D.C. though, there is a long flight over to Wakayama, Japan involved in this virtual trip.
Askar Khamdamov has a profile that’s mainly based in San Francisco and Los Angeles by the looks of things, and through a mixture of film and digital (most of it is film) photography he provides a look at the everyday side of classic car ownership. You won’t find concours sprawled on glittering greens, and you won’t find steams of pictures from the same event or showroom or anything that can be considered formulaic. Each photo stands alone, and along with the earned wear and markings on the VW Buses, domestic pickups, and livable sports imports, they give a peek into the daily life of the city. Be prepared for nostalgia done right, with analog cameras and warm colors that are far removed from any Instagram filter.
drsmoothdeath is not a general practitioner type, and his photographic portfolio shows a focused body of work. It isn’t just “classic cars in Portland, OR,” though, as his photos are always concerned with not just the car, but the scene it was found in. Practically every frame in here is a masterclass in composition, and from one the next you might find yourself feeling homesick for your childhood, inspired to move to the Pacific Northwest with a VW Beetle and some knobby tires, or just plain intrigued and impressed by the sheer number of big American barges still surviving in such a tough climate. Looking through this account, you feel like you’re walking the backstreets off the main road, and every house on your route is hiding something built long before the city became famous for beards and coffee shops.
Dean M’s classiccarsofdc profile on Instagram tells you exactly what you’re getting into. Heavy on the detail shots, this isn’t the place to find parades of vintage metal going slowly past the Lincoln Memorial necessarily, but if you’re curious to see what kinds of cars show up to the classic section of the Cars & Coffees of the nation’s capital, this has you covered. The cars featured in Dean’s work offer a cross section from the world’s major manufacturers, and you’ll find Alfas sharing space with Astro Vans; no discrimination beyond the basis of being cool. The photos themselves are full of deep colors, gleaming chrome, and lately a lot of beautifully bokeh’d light and brightness from the east coast autumn.
To wrap up the automotive section this week is Shuuhei Tamura and his plucky Mini Cooper. He drives the baby Brit through all four of Wakayama’s seasons at the mouth of the Osaka Bay. If you don’t like beige Minis though, this isn’t likely to be one of your favorite accounts. However, if you love the idea of taking the adorable city car icon out of the cramped gridlock and into the mountains overlooking the urban center, Shuuhei has what you’re looking for. There’s just one car featured, but it goes to seemingly every scenic spot in the prefecture, and the resulting collection of photos is a wondrous mix of cherry blossoms, industry, vast landscapes, the galaxy, seaside highways, everything. It’s a stunning compilation of a beloved car, and I think we should all be so lucky to have a bond with their machine like Shuuhei.
If cities and small cars are making you feel a bit claustrophobic this is your antidote in photo form. It’s hard for me to believe that Kevin Russ shoots everything on the page above with just an iPhone, but when you’re pointing it at scenes like these, I suppose even an old Polaroid would produce something pretty. This is how you inspire financially-irresponsible wanderlust and rationalize last-minute plane tickets. From the stark reverential mountains of Yosemite, the Lord of the Rings film set that is New Zealand, and the all the way to the desert dunes of Namibia, Kevin’s path brings him in contact with the kinds of scenes that mainly exist in our imaginations.
If you make it to the bottom of these lists it’s safe to say you’re already following Petrolicious on Instagram, but if you haven’t checked in lately, stop by for a few scrolls and see what’s new on our end.
