Parked Photography

Photo: James Wilder, Parked Photography

What is Parked Photography?

Parked Photography is a photography genre that captures the soul of a car in its natural habitat: parked, waiting, stored, forgotten, honored, remembered, or abandoned.

Parked Photography is a genre in the same way that street photography is a genre.

Genre History

Parked Photography is a very specific approach to car photography. Many people have practiced this style for decades, yet it never had a name to reference it. The idea to use the phrase "Parked Photography" as a genre for car photography began on December 16, 2020, by James Wilder. It is a style and therefore needs a name.

Origins of Style

Photographing parked cars is nothing new. However, if a parked car is the primary subject of the photograph, and the composition is approached as art, then it becomes a style.

The history of Parked Photography can easily be traced back to a few prominent photographers.

William Eggleston

Photo: William Eggleston

Without a doubt William Eggleston is the most famous photographer of the snapshot style. Eggleston loved bold color and his photography was the first color photography exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

Eggleston's philosophy of photography was "democratic" in that any object could be the subject of a photo and any location was worthy.

Ray K Metzker

Photo: Ray K. Metzker

Ray K. Metzker (September 10, 1931 – October 9, 2014) was an American photographer known chiefly for his bold, experimental B&W cityscapes.

He clearly had an affinity for parked photography as you see on these photos taken between 1958 and 1965: Metzker-1

A book of his automobile photography titled "Automagic" was published in 2009. Only 50 copies were printed.

Metzker was born in Milwaukee and lived in Philadelphia from the 1960s until his death. He was married to the photographer Ruth Thorne-Thomsen.

After graduate studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Metzker traveled extensively throughout Europe in 1960-61, where he had two epiphanies: that "light" would be his primary subject, and that he would seek synthesis and complexity over simplicity. Metzker often said the artist begins his explorations by embracing what he doesn't know.

Finally

Check out the latest blog posts on Parked Photography.

If you are interested in learning the basics of car photography you can check out this car photography ebook for a quick start.