Valvoline

Original fine art photographic print by JP Greenwood.

Some things only bear importance to the individuals who gave it to them in the first place—a child’s favorite colored pencil is just a regular one to anyone else—but there are others that call up a more universal significance.

Gas and oil cans fit the latter description, and they present an interesting dichotomy of emotion when they’re portrayed in this aged condition. There is of course the inextricable link between literal fuel used to move around and the more figurative sense of freedom and potential provided therein, but what JP Greenwood has achieved in these prints is a bit more than that.

These series of photographs, shot in medium format with Hasselblad equipment in the studio, are at once nostalgic and timeless; the subject matter is literally rusted, crumpled, dented, scuffed, thoroughly and fully “used,” while the presentation and printing of such items is meant to endure, immortalizing these bits of Americana before they’re fully corroded.

Note: Frame not included.