Author Description

An exploration of photography's longstanding and generative relationship to the automobile. Since its invention, the automobile has reshaped our landscape, extended our geographic horizons and radically altered our conception of space and time, influencing the practice of photographers worldwide. This book shows how the car provided photographers with new subject matter and a new way of exploring the world. It brings together 500 works made by 100 historical and contemporary artists from around the world. Capturing formal qualities such as the geometric design of roadways or reflections in a rear-view mirror, these photographers invite us to look at the world of the automobile in a new way. Auto-Photo also includes other projects such as a series of car models that cast a fresh eye on the history of automobile design, created specifically for the Fondation Cartier show by French artist Alain Bublex, plus a comparative history of automobile design and photography, essays by scholars and quotes by participating artists. Featuring the works of both historical and contemporary figures such as Jacques- Henri Lartigue, Man Ray, Lee Friedlander and Jacqueline Hassink, the exhibition will show how photographers have continuously documented the impact of automobility on our landscape and lifestyle, and how in turn the automobile has reshaped the practice of photographers, providing them with a new subject, a new means of expression and a new way of seeing the world.