Contact-sheet interlude

1 roll; 12 images; a choice to make.

An easy afternoon in Oklahoma. The sun hits as usual. Read: too hard.

I spent the morning getting in and out of the car, shooting Route 66 debris along the Mother Road, when I spot this tiny unattended museum dedicated to more memorabilia.

The museum is filled with mostly interesting objects, but of course, it’s the dragster that attracts my attention.

It sits in the middle of a poorly lit room that must have once been a garage of sorts.

What strikes me is the curves. All of it is about aerodynamics and I can’t spot one angle in that speed machine.

Of course, it’s very low.
I’m glad I carry a Hasselblad (old-school photographers will get that).

After some time spent trying to find the right angle, I see the pattern. The theme.

Four images. Four square frames, hung two by two to form one larger square. And in each image, a circle.

The rear-view mirror (which actually belongs to a hotrod); the fat tyre with “DRAG” written on it; the speedometer that goes up to a million mph; and the gauges tucked behind that tiny windshield.

I’ll print them big, 20×20”.
Four separate photographs. One piece.

And then, I notice the last image. I don’t even understand what I was trying to shoot. So I enlarge a test print.

And discover a self-portrait in the mirror of an old cab.

A selfie from another time.
That’s the one.