The exhibition "Rear View Mirror: Automobile Images and American Identities " was organized by:

UCR/California Museum of Photography

In cooperation with

The Automobile Club of Southern California

Featuring over one hundred photographs, the show (as described by UCR/CMP Curator of Exhibitions Kevin Jon Boyle) "is a vehicle for looking back at the American relationship with the automobile and the constructs and cultures that evolved from it."

The Web component of the exhibition features the following:

Image Gallery

Images drawn from the one hundred in the exhibition. Includes photographs by Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Will Connell, Robert Flick, Herbert Quick, Ed Ruscha, Margaret Bourke-White, and from the museum's Keystone Mast Collection.

Auto Identity

You are invited to submit text and pictures that describe your experiences with the automobile and roadside culture. Simply send an email to rearviewmirror@chariot.ucr.edu describing your experiences and include one image as an attached JPEG file. (Preferred specifications: save the JPEG image with a "quality" setting of 6. Please set the resolution to 72 pixels-per-inch and make the largest dimension 300 pixels. If you need more information on how to do this, send an email with your questions.) See the Auto Identity gallery of submissions.

Gregory Fleischer

Gregory Fleischer's images reveal the dramas that take place inside automobiles, seen through the front windshield.

Thomas Kelsey: People & Cars

The Great American Race started as a cross-country, coast-to-coast car rally for antique automobiles in 1983. Thomas Kelsey has documented 12 of those races as a photojournalist, covering over 50,000 miles in the process. The event draws vintage autos from all over the world.

Susan E. King: Women and Cars

Two views of Susan E. King's 1983 offset artist book "Women and Cars." (Photographed for the Web by Ron Pidot.)

Essays

The following essays may be read online:

Rear View Mirror: Automobile
Images and American Identities
by Matthew W. Roth

Modernity and the Mythology of the Open Road
by Kevin Jon Boyle

Stopping Traffic: Women, Cars and the Cinema
Kathleen McHugh, Ph.D.

Automobile Culture and American Identity
From Hot Rodders to Low Riders
By Celestino Fernandez, Ph.D.

High Art Parking Lot
by Alan Hess

Exhibition Views

QuickTime Virtual Reality views of the exhibition as installed at UCR / California Museum of Photography. Photographed by Marie-Helene Huard.

Catalog

The exhibition catalog is available for $25 plus shipping and handling. Please contact UCR/CMP's Museum Store for more information: 909.787.4787.

 

Acknowledgements
by Jonathan Green
Director, UCR/California Museum of Photography

The Auto Club's Matt Roth first suggested the project and inspired UCR/CMP's Curator of Exhibitions Kevin Boyle to draw on his own personal experiences with automobile culture to investigate a range of photographic and filmic portrayals of the interplay between the car and the American psyche. Matt's and Kevin's commitment to this project have been shared by the staff of the museum whose technical and administrative support have made this exhibition possible. Special thanks to catalog designer Wendy Brown and to those whose work in registration and digital scanning have made this book possible: Curator of Collections Steve Thomas; Registrar Don Parker; Curatorial Assistant Karen Barber; and collections interns Gary Drake, Onawa Cutshall, and Justus Patton-Taylor.

Without the commitment and vision of Thomas V. McKernan, Jr., President and CEO of the Auto Club, we would not have been able to undertake this ambitious and innovative project. Senior Vice President Robert T. Bouttier, Vice President Stephen E. Lenzi, and Public Relations Manager Carol Thorp have also provided steady support for the Club's archives and the exhibition of the collections. Thomas Reul, Richard Meyer, Susan Certo and Melissa Brown provided insight and encouragement on behalf of the project. Much of the Auto Club's participation was based on the efforts of Morgan Yates from the archives, and Elaine Beno from public relations.

Finally, acknowledgment must be made to the scholars whose essays help turn our fascination with the automobile into understanding and to generous photographers and lenders from around the nation who have allowed us to assemble in one spot an extraordinary anthology of images that describe the vitality of American photography and American automobile culture.

(Above: Automobile Parade, Saratoga, New York, n.d. Keystone Mast UCR/CMP, WX27139. Cover Page: Will Connell, Automobile Advertisement, 1940.)