Japanese Car Cruise-in: Peterson Automotive Museum
Portrait with Roadster, 2024
09/01/2024, 8:30 AM
On a quiet morning buzzing with ecstasy, the road to LA was virtually empty until we neared the Peterson Automotive Museum.
It wasn’t so quiet anymore. The smoggy air was filled with the sound of passion, labor, metal, and performance. The colors were bathed in the bright early morning light. The parking garage’s acoustic nature brought the attention away from the eyes and straight to the ears.
With every passing chunk of metal, I gasped. Look at that one. And THAT one. AND that one. And that ONE. People were clamoring, and you could just tell that it was going to be a good day today.
As much as I love shooting cars, I feel that it can be a little redundant at a car show, where the cars are put on show for your senses to experience.
So, this time, I wanted to approach the scene differently. I wanted to shoot the people in juxtaposition with the beautiful cars on display.
The show is about cars. But what if I told you it wasn’t? It never really was. It almost never is.
What happens when you put cars together without any humans admiring them? Do the cars look at each other and compare each other? Do they gab over the amount of hours, dollar, beads of sweat, or blood put into their bodies?
The uniqueness of cars stems from the identities of the drivers. The car is just a medium.
And this picture above was my all time favorite capture from this day. I wanted a visually interesting composition, action, and clear context for what this event felt like to me.
It made me so ecstatic that a moment like this was right in front of one of my favorite cars of all time, the Mazda MX-5 Miata.
The leading lines, the smoking, and the absolutely iconic headlights of the car that any car enthusiast would describe as the most fun you can have driving a car.
I was looking for interesting subjects and composition the whole time I was at this event. Here are some that I felt very good about, but didn’t hit the goal of showing the context of the show as much.
The Peterson Automotive Museum houses some of the most historical and amazing vehicles in LA. If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit to see these beautiful masterpieces of automotive history. Enjoy the rest of these images, and I’ll see you in the next one.
