The Quantum of Cars
Interior, '27 Nash roadster I don't get the chance to philosophize much in my line of work. We're far more concerned with paint curing times and combustion chamber shapes than the effect of the car on the psyche, or its place in art. But last week, I shot a 1927 Nash roadster that hasn't run since the fall of 1951; it is, literally, in a hundred pieces. My editor tells me I'm overthinking this, but I don't think you can call this a car as a physical object. Inarguably, though, it's still a car in Bob's mind: This is my car; it doesn't look like one to you, outsider; but just because it is no longer car shaped doesn't mean it is no longer a car. It doesn't matter to me if it's on the road in a recognizably carlike form; or disassembled and scattered across the world. If it can still be made into a car, it is one. I think that's one of the things that differentiates car people from non car people. To us, a c...