Ben Reynolds, A Portrait of Cars (Documentary/Photojournalism (ATEP 2017))

A Portrait of Cars is mainly based around Fremantle and Marine Pde, which is the Coastal Strip between Cottesloe and Fremantle in Western Australia, where a great car culture exists. This car culture is particularly prevalent on weekends in summer when owners can really immerse themselves in it and the beach/social atmosphere the area has to offer. Driving up and down the Cappuccino Strip, South Tce or along Marine Pde, often in convoy, the car owners are all hugely proud of their cars, and the cars often seem to make up a part of who they are, and even play a role in how people view them in the community. The stories about how owners acquire their cars is also usually interesting, quite often involving the cars being handed down through generations, given to partners as engagement presents etc. Their cars are quite regularly given human names, like Valerie, and Vera. The project is really about an obsession I have developed for photographing cars but also about preserving a moment in time that will soon be lost forever. I shoot in a documentary, candid style using shoot 100% film, mainly using an old medium format camera. I find that colour film helps to bring out the beautiful colours of the old cars and helps to accentuate their nostalgic beauty. Shooting on film also forces me to slow down and make sure I have a good composition, and I usually try to incorporate traditional buildings, old corner stores, hotels etc as backdrops to add the nostalgia of these old cars. The project is as much about the quickly changing urban environment that these beautiful old cars inhabit, as the cars themselves. It is a last hurrah to some of the beautiful old corners stores, old buildings and establishments that are quickly being taken over by yuppified cafes, and franchised business's. Family run corner stores in Fremantle have been operating for 50 plus years, and like many others, soon may no longer exist.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.