Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear
Installation view of ‘Autophoto’ at Fondation Cartier.
(Image credit: Luc Boegly)

The Fondation Cartier has devoted its entire exhibition space in Paris to a new show on cars – hundreds of them – without featuring a single actual vehicle. Instead, the fittingly named ‘Autophoto’ is focused on car-related photography from the early 20th century through the present, with various themes sending visitors through winding gallery lanes to discover works by the likes of William Eggleston, Robert Frank, Daido Moriyama, Ed Ruscha, Joel Meyerowitz, Seydou Keïta, Germaine Krull, Martin Parr, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Edward Burtynsky and at least 80 talents.

With over 500 images, the show ranks among the Fondation Cartier’s largest to date; and yet the show steers clear of visual overload, in part because so many of the photos occur as series – an obvious parallel to the manufacturing of cars. Indeed, Fondation Cartier curator Leanne Sacramone told Wallpaper* that when curators Xavier Barral and Philippe Séclier first proposed the idea, one of their more compelling points was the shared history of both car and modern camera and how such notions as speed – whether via engine or shutter – and reproducibility are inherent to both.

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

From the ‘Los Alamos’ series, by William Eggleston, 1965-1968. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/London. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, Memphis)

But the thematic possibilities didn’t end there, as the groupings of works makes clear. The opening section is titled Auto-Portraits, a clever double entendre given that this is the French term for ‘self-portrait’. Here, visitors will find a wide range of aesthetically-motivated representations, from Yasuhiro Ishimoto’s elegant series of old cars dusted with snow, to Fully Fueled, Basile Mookherjee’s snapshots of young men from the United Arab Emirates, their flashy sports cars, and the towers that soar above, which altogether depict how such status symbols project their self-worth. Also on the main level are the images that clearly show how photographers such as Lee Friedlander, Robert Adams, Martin Parr, and Andres Gursky use cars as part of their process, framing the scene through a window, using the rear-view mirror for distorted perspective, documenting infrastructure, or situating the vehicle within a landscape to emphasise scale.

The lower gallery, meanwhile, reveals the creative license that photographers have employed when considering the sociological aspects of cars – how, beyond their utility, they reflect and relate to our way of life. Among the works that fall into this category are Jacqueline Hassink’s Car Girls, a projected mosaic of the women on view at car shows around the world, which she spent six years compiling, as well as Stéphane Couturier’s stylised and superimposed view of a Toyota factory, or else Jean Pigozzi’s paparazzi candids of Liv Tyler and Jack Nicholson from inside their cars.

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

‘MELT, Toyota n° 8, Melting Point series, Usine Toyota, Valenciennes’, by Stéphane Couturier, 2005. Collection of the artist. 

(Image credit: Courtesy La Galerie Particulière, Paris / Bruxelles. © Stéphane Couturier)

The final section, Car Excavations, will register to some visitors as most evocative, for it is here that the show explores the afterlife of the automobile and its confrontations with nature; Sugimoto’s washed up car parts, Burtynsky’s stark tire heaps, and Peter Lippmann’s automobiles consumed by forest overgrowth suggest the traces left behind.

Sacramone noted that the exhibition isn’t intended to impart any ‘grandiose’ takeaway as much as using the automobile as the common link to showcasing outstanding photography across time. The fact that show takes place in Paris where, despite ever-present traffic, few city-dwellers really drive, grounds the theme in somewhat ironic context.

‘There’s something to be said for that,’ she agreed, noting how the French have long held a fascination for the American road trip (to wit, curator Séclier made a documentary tracing the path of Frank’s famous book, The Americans). Wearing a wheel-inspired metal brooch designed by Constance Guisset, who oversaw the scenography, Sacramore noted how the show’s deep dive will have broad appeal to those who are not auto aficionados. Because aside from all the self-contained journeys, many of the photos prove how our interactions with cars can prove so moving.

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Tribute to Giorgio de Chirico, by Luciano Rigolini, 2017. Appropriation (unknown photographer, 1958). 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Légende, from the Windows series, 2009. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Martin Parr Studio, Bristol. © Óscar Fernando Gómez)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Coaster Ride Stealth, by David Bradford, from the Drive-By Shootings series, 1994. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist/ZOXX Gallery, Almere. © David Bradford)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Woman Waiting to Proceed South at Sunset and Highland Boulevards, Los Angeles, at Approximately 11:59 a.m. One Day in February 1997, by Andrew Bush, from the Vector Portraits series, 1997

(Image credit: Courtesy of M+B Gallery, Los Angeles)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Grand Prix de l’ACF, Automobile Delage, Circuit de Dieppe, 26 juin, by Jacques-Henri Lartigue, 1912.

(Image credit: © Ministère de la Culture – France / AAJHL)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Car Poolers #12, by Alejandro Cartagena, from the series The Carpoolers, 2011-2012

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Studio portraits, China, collected by Thomas Sauvin, c1950. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Collection Beijing Silvermine/Thomas Sauvin, Paris)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Installation view of ‘Autophoto’ at Fondation Cartier.

(Image credit: Luc Boegly)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

From the ’Los Alamos’ series, by William Eggleston, c1974. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/London. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, Memphis)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

OJ Simpson n°5, by Juergen Teller, 2000. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

On the Acapulco road, Mexico, by Bernard Plossu, from the Voyage Mexicain series, 1966. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Hintere Kotflügel, by Peter Keetman, from the Eine Woche im Volkswagenwerk series, 1953. 

(Image credit: © Nachlass Peter Keetman / Stiftung FC Gundlach, Hamburg)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

280 Coup, by Justine Kurland, 2012. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist / Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Zizka Cleaners car, Buick Electra, by Langdon Clay, from Cars, New York City, 1976. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Untitled, by Ronni Campana, from Badly repaired cars, 2015. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Montana, from the America by Car series, 2008. 

(Image credit: Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Untitled, by Seydou Keïta, 1952 - 55. Courtesy of CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva. © SKPEAC (The Seydou Keïta Photography Estate Advisor Corporation))

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Taximan avec voiture, by Malick Sidibé, 1970. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Galerie Magnin-A, Paris. © the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Washington, DC, by Ray K. Metzker, 1964. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of Les Douches la Galerie, Paris / Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. © the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Traction Citroën 7, by Peter Lippmann, from the ’Paradise Parking’ series. 

(Image credit: © the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Cerimônia do Adeus series, by Rosângela Rennó, 1997–2003. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist / Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon. © the artist)

Spoiler alert: Fondation Cartier’s blockbuster car photography show gets into gear

Untitled, by Valérie Belin, 2002. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist / Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris / Brussels. © Valérie Belin/ADAGP, Paris 2017)

INFORMATION
‘Autophoto’ is on view until 24 September. For more information, visit the Fondation Cartier website

ADDRESS

Foundation Cartier
261 Boulevard Raspail
Paris 75014

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