BREAK DOWN

When we think of the classic American landscape, it would be hard to envision it without the automobile. Route 66, Easy Rider, the General Lee, Night Rider, stock cars, funny cars, drag racing, the thousands of miles of asphalt laid down, criss crossing the landscape in service of America’s infatuation with the automobile. No other country has cars so immersed into its identity or its landscape. "Break Down" started one Autumn day while staying in a converted bus just outside Brattleboro, Vermont. One morning, I ran across a small collection of scrapped cars in the woods. What struck me wasn’t just that they were cars sitting idly out of context, but that they were literally becoming part of the landscape. They start to rust and decay; their metal crumbles and rubber cracks, then the colors and patterns slowly fade away. For a while though, the form remains — enough to hold up its former elegance and dignity before it all crumbles and falls back into the encroaching landscape.