Book Review: Stars and Cars of the ’50s

Automotive photography generally falls into three categories, each of them interesting in their own way. There are highly polished, advertisement or magazine-style images, expertly crafted and showing off every curve and contour of the car. There are editorial images, capturing the speed and fury of racing and high-speed driving. The final category is the least orthodox, and in some ways the most compelling. Photography that lets the car become part of the setting as well as the subject, intermingling the machines with the people who drive them. Today’s book definitely falls into that third category.

Stars and Cars of the ‘50s by Edward Quinn is one of the nicest photobooks we’ve seen in recent memory. Encompassing some of the biggest names of that glamorous decade and set across the backdrop of the Côte d’Azur, Stars and Cars of the ‘50s shows these legends at play in their natural environment (see our post from a while back on the same subject). The cars themselves are incredible as well, with everything from Mercedes 300SLs to Austin-Healeys to Ferraris, even Spencer Tracy’s Ford Country Squire wagon makes an appearance. The black-and-white photography is beautifully shot and presented, bringing warmth and sophistication to that bygone era. All in all, it’s terrifically well presented and well worth a look.

Click here to pick up a copy from Amazon.

Photography by Sean Lorentzen