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General => General discussion => Topic started by: Tornado GTI on 07 November 2011, 19:22
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HI all
I would be very appreciated if you could help me.
I am in my final year of university studying photographic art, I have to create one piece of work that will last a year to complete and then exhibit. For this I have decided to focus and turn my personal work into a project. I have been photographing the modifying and tuning scene for many years now mostly German metal.
I will carry on photographing meets and car shows through out next season but wanted to start by getting some first hand research from the people that are apart of the scene / car culture.
If you could spend a little bit of your time by telling me what your thoughts are on car culture and why it is so attractive to you.
Also here are some questions I would like to know your view on e.g.
1. Can a modified car be classed as Art?
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you?
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? If so why?
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? eg. Inspiration, meeting other car enthusiast etc.
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? Is it for a spot on the cover of a magazine? e.g. PVW etc.
Thanks hope to here back from you.
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Why don't you focus on the time aspect. Take a picture of your car at the same focal length and distance every day. This will give you 365 photos of the same subject in the exact same position in different locations and you can make a time lapse style montage so that the background moves and not the car. it could even be a paper flip book. You can expand on the notion that though the car is designed to move it is stationary and the thing moving is the background. juxtaposition of an object that should be moving but isnt but is moving through time. better yet instead of your car get yourself a model of a delorean and photograph that. time machine, innit
Or you can have a massive canvas with all the photos arranged so that each season is clearly shown through the colours of the background. For example for the winter months photo your car in front of cool colours like blues. For spring and summer photovgraph it front of greens and yellows. For autumn photograph it front of browns bronze and golds and arrange them in a circular fashion to denote the circle of life type thing/clock
also you might want to video blog it for a "behind the scenes" extra feature explaining your choice of locations and the like with a shot of each day's newspaper
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http://www.photographyblogger.net/time-lapse-photography-in-your-car/
I would do something like this ^:
But, I would change it so the camera is fixed so you can't see the driver, just the dash and outside.
Then, I would take a pic every day on a road that I travel every day.
But I would take the next pic a little further down the road, and so on.
The desired effect being that it would take 365 days to reach my destination, and I can see all the seasons along the route. Be even more awesome if you could take them at different times, so the 365 days is also dawn to dusk.
Hope that makes sense.
Jonathan.
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the dawn to dusk bit is a fantastic idea
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1. Can a modified car be classed as Art? If a tonne of banana's dump in Trafalgar Square is art, anything can be.
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you? www.edition38.com
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? No. If so why? www.edition38.com
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? Seeing chicks in short skirts and boobs popping out their tops.
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? I don't. Much.
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1. Can a modified car be classed as Art? Yes
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you? Personal touch, nothing OTT. Subtle
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? If so why? I would say majority is male but there a few classy females out there
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? Meeting up with mates. Volksfest for example, drinking having a laugh. Talking about cars is not what is on everyones lips at shows like that. Over all I think its a social aspect and showing off your creation
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? Is it for a spot on the cover of a magazine? e.g. PVW etc. Personal touch, I will modify my car the way I want to not what the craze is
see this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3l9FwnWyjM&feature=feedf
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1. Can a modified car be classed as Art? Yeah, imo art is classed as personall expression, and you can express your self through your car to an extent.
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you? friends, socialising, having a laugh, helping people out.
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? If so why? sort of, because of the amount of girls who dont really want to get there hands dirty and chip there nails, however a large amount of girls are out there
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? eg. Inspiration, meeting other car enthusiast etc. same as question 2 and also to admire peoples work
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? Is it for a spot on the cover of a magazine? e.g. PVW etc. to add my own touch to the car
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also not sure how handy you are with a paint brush ect, but could do something like thisbrushing off the dirt
(http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/fat-car-art.jpg) again not sure how dirty your car gets ect. you might be one of these people that clean it every weekend in which case you proberbly wouldnt be able to do something like this.
or you could focus on a certain part. or maybe parts.
or you could do something along the lines of personalising a car part to suit your mood of that week or month or to reflect things thats happening that month/week i.e a lad i know is getting his gf to draw on all his wheels heres one thats half finished
(http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/297407_10150326421470876_643585875_8545013_1034542741_n.jpg) however you could do something to match the mood/season i.e now you could draw a autumy type scene with trees loosing flowers ect then put the wheel on the car, maybe drive to a wooded type area and have some leafs around the wheel then take a picture showing the wheel as the main part but having the trees ect in the back ground, then maybe next month a sort of christmasy theme with snow flakes or presents ect then have maybe a snow man in the background of the picture and take a picture of the car, again close up to the wheel i.e this kind of shot (http://us.cdn4.123rf.com/168nwm/simonkr/simonkr1105/simonkr110500021/9506238-close-up-shot-of-an-off-road-car-wheel-driving-across-the-australian-outback-on-a-red-dirt-country-r.jpg) but with something seasonal in the back ground. just an idea i think could be quite cool
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(http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/fat-car-art.jpg)
girl with a peral earring by vermeer if you were interested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring
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Hi all
Thanks for all the comments so far, and thanks adam for the video. I really want to photograph the scene and show people what happens at meets and shows, i think its funny how we all just stand round looking at cars and planing things to do to our own cars. i like how when we see a slammed VW on the road we have this connexion that we are apart of the same crowd / culture.
i think that some of the show locations e.g. ultimate dubs in telford start to bring something more to the images you start to see cars lined up with people walking round in a massive indoor space in some cases like an art gallery, it is also like a private gathering as from the outside no one really knows there are hundreds of enthusiasts looking at top class metal.
do you think images of our scene could be interesting to people that are not apart of it ? if images of our shows where put in a gallery space with artists, photographers and filmmakers all viewing them what do you think they would make of them ?
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1. Can a modified car be classed as Art?
of corse, its an object of individual expression. its not only an art form but with all the different kind of modification sytles (OEM, OEM+, retro, rat, scene, or whatever) but car modification is almost like medium for a post modernist visual language of its own.
something that might he helpful/interesting for your research would be to have a read about kandinsky, and his involvement at the bauhaus. and also about his theory of the inner (or the self) and the outer (physical surrounding). especially with the way that car modification is going, its interesting to see the how post modern design aesthetic has gone full circle without the majority society having a clue about what and how the world around it has come to be what it is.
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you?
putting your own mark on a car. you kinda grow out of most hobbies you have as a kid, and tinkering away at the weekends is a nice place to get away from the every day sh!t for me, even if it mostly involves a lot of swearing. plus its a nice way to make friends and share enthusiasm. subtle clean changes are a win for me. a little bit of bling is nice, but polished engine bays do nothing to be. i like to see a car being used and enjoyed doing what it was designed to do - being driven.
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? If so why?
although there is more female interest emerging like on the edition forum, i think thats just the way the world works. im sure theres alot more female enthusiasts that don't get noticed, or maybe just over shadowed.
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? eg. Inspiration, meeting other car enthusiast etc.
for me its just nice to see what people have done to their cars, its nice to see people thinking methods, its usually quite an interesting expression of them selves, like a self portrait so to speak. i like the networking aspect of it, although i haven't managed to get to any shows with working over summer since ive been at uni. its nice to walk around a show, enjoy the cars and talk to other like minded people about something other than what they have done to the car recently.
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? Is it for a spot on the cover of a magazine? e.g. PVW etc. nope. its just because i like the look and sound old german cars. much in the same way as i like old german/swiss graphics and typography. plus I'm a tad sentimental and like to look after my little mk2 even if it is only a 1.6 driver - probably the most cherished item i own at present.
do you think images of our scene could be interesting to people that are not apart of it ? if images of our shows where put in a gallery space with artists, photographers and filmmakers all viewing them what do you think they would make of them ?
definatly, i think composition has alot to do with it, wide shots of a whole car can be boring. i like the low angle, heavily cropped images with paint reflections that you see on the likes of g-werks, and rotiforms facebook pages. some nice montage there aswell
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1. Can a modified car be classed as Art?
i dont follow the thinking that modifying a car is an artform but can understand those that do. When you start to play with a car most people are wanting to put their mark on it which some may say is an artistic statement. however there are a lot of people end up with very similar looking cars within a given scene
2. What does the modifying scene mean to you?
not a lot really. for the most part i think of posers and show offs. by adding the word "scene" it totally changes the question really. modifying means a lot to me but the scene? not really bothered adout who is the lowest, fastest, most expensive, shiniest etc. i prefer builds that have overcome problems in a different way.
3. Do you think the scene is male dominated? If so why?
yes i do. Reason being the majority of girly are just not that interested in cars generally. many that are wont attempt to do their own work either so it is a very expensive hobby. i think a lot of girls driving modified cars are onkly driving them because of their partner. massive generalisation i know and i am not saying i am against girls modifying cars.
4. What is so appealing about car shows, and what is your reason for attending? eg. Inspiration, meeting other car enthusiast etc.
my main interest in car shows is spending time with my mates, catching up. they usually involve camping, music and beer. also good to get parts and enjoy track based events a lot more than static shows.
the actual show side of things i find a little dull. i am impressed by a lot of vehicles, the time and dedication that has gone into them but am usually left wondering how much cash has been blown on them, how little they get driven etc.
i tend to spend more time looking at the cars in the car park/campsite than the show cars
5. Why do you modify your chosen car? Is it for a spot on the cover of a magazine? e.g. PVW etc.
i have no desire for my car to be in a magazine at all. i modify cars to make them look and perform better. to make them stand out a little from the crowd (unless that crowd happens to be a field full of mk2's!)
good luck with the course