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There's a curious thing about L.A. that you don't find in any other large, U.S. cities. We spend an inordinate amount of time in our cars. As the crow flies, from my house to Hollywood is about 13 miles. In drive time that can mean an hour to an hour and a half. Unless it's very early in the morning, or late in the evening, and not on a weekend but maybe midweek, and then it's more like 30 minutes. It's all about the traffic.
All about the other 10s of millions of others that are trying to get here from there. Buzzing along on strips of asphalt looped and circled like bowls of spaghetti or arching like dinosaur tails. All of us, shuffling around in our little glass and metal boxes. Our private rooms. Our private worlds. Zipping through time, or standing still.
Standing still seems to take up a large part of our time. And there we sit, looking at each other. Oblivious that to the others, we are visible. Oblivious in this way, some pick noses, some read texts, some write texts, some shave, some apply makeup, read the the paper, the bible, floss teeth, sing, yawn, scratch ..... And we watch each other, curious in our furtive glances. For the last 20 years Photographer, Andrew Bush (this, same photographer) has been driving around L.A. taking photos with what he calls his, "car tripod" a camera, placed in the area where he removed the front passenger seat of his own car, weighted down by sand bags. The result are these fantastic large, color, (intimate) portraits of people in their cars, shot mostly, in and around Los Angeles. To see more from Drives, visit here

Comments

Mandi Johnson said…
Ah! This is so fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
Renae Moore said…
I love this Megan. After living in many major cities, I have learned when to be and not be on the road. It is funny to observe peeps in their cars.
Enjoy the beach Girl!
Petunia Face said…
I once saw a guy playing the trombone in his car while stopped at a red light. Or a trumpet--one of the smaller wind instruments. Anyway, I felt lucky the rest of the day.

Love these pics.
72 and sunny said…
I want to see someone playing a trombone. the craziest thing I've seen (outside of the obscene) is a guy picking his nose with the little nubbin' antennae that used to stick up from cell phones (tells you how long ago that was)
Urbanstems said…
I loved that post..thanks for sharing. Made by day. I am glad I am home today and not in traffic!!Woo hoo!!
Gwen Driscoll said…
These are so cute! My Dad restored old cars so images of those reminded me of him. And, I'm in the car all the time too. Yuk!
La Maison Fou said…
Love the look of these people in cars. It seems cars & dogs are a lot of a reflection of their owners.
Wow some bee hive looking vintage do's, and gerntlemen in fast cars!
Love it!
L.
Jennifer said…
Cracked me up! My friend Ann said she was in the French Riveria and she would see women in bikinis with deep rich tans and when they would turn - they looked like cigar store Indians from the sun and smoking. Jennifer jennsthreegraces
These are great! So LA, they're perfect!! Always waiting in traffic. Can you imagine when the people turned their heads to see a camera in a passenger seat pointing at them?!
So funny! In my previous life, I used to be a rep for a major mortgage company, and my life was spent in the car - have seen some crazy crazy stuff!
wendy said…
That is classic! love it!!
ZDub said…
I went through these the other night and I want to start doing this, shooting photographs from my car.

And I will, as soon as I can figure out how to do it without killing myself and everyone else on the highway.

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