Based in
Australia
Photographed in
Australia
Over the past few years I have been photographing the coastal road between Fremantle and Cottesloe in Western Australia, where on any given weekend you can still experience a car culture unconstrained by design rules, where simple, beautiful shapes and colours are on full display. Some of my favourites are the non classics, that don’t belong to a car club and a big group of enthusiasts, but just individuals who have always wanted one. They aren’t always the most beautiful classic cars, yet they still manage to turn heads when you take them out for a spin.
Beginning in the Port City of Fremantle, the drive weaves through several quaint Italian influenced side-streets and the remaining few traditionally run family stores, onto South Tce and its local hotels down at South Beach, before cruising down Fremantle’s legendary ‘Cappuccino Strip’. Leaving Fremantle over the picturesque ‘old bridge’ it then passes by Port Beach and its colourful shipping containers stacked high, and entering Marine Pde towards Cottesloe. On route towards Cottesloe it hugs the coastline passing several surf breaks and a small cluster of corner stores and local hotels, and entering Cottesloe Beach and its quiet Norfolk Pine avenued streets. It takes about 25 leisurely minutes, some where between a small road trip and a bog lap, and its undeniably one of the best drives in the West.
To the owners, these cars are way more than just a means of transportation, they are an extension of the owner themselves, part of their own personality. The ‘transportation function’ is second only to self image and sense of belongingness in the community.
My process is to go along for the ride on the weekends, using medium format film to document the drive, developing the photos at Fremantle Camerahouse, scanning the photos at home and then forming visual stories through diptychs and written stories about the Road Warriors, which I hope to develop into a photobook soon.
