Western Rider, Views from a Car Window

I stay in touch with my friend Sophia, who lives in Teignmouth, UK,  who I met online during an online photo workshop with Kim Manley Ort several years ago.    She recently went on a trip to Wales and posted some photos on Facebook of the gray weather and the wonderful landscapes   mentioning that the weather was awful so she did not spend much time out of the car, the photos were all taken through the glass.    I commented that drive by photos were always wonderful and I liked all of them!    She then told me about this book..she knows about books and poetry and Scotch whiskey, anyway, the book. It was a book called Western Rider, Views from a Car Window by Chuck Forsman.   I found it on Amazon and the price was so reasonable that I had to buy it.  

Oh wow, I am so glad I did!   Forsman is a painter and photographer who took these photos of the American West several years ago with black and white film.  Out the window of his car with no cropping or massive editing.  Just what he saw.    The book was published in 2003 but I think the photos were from several different time periods.  He mentions in the prologue that he was driving around looking for landscape painting inspirations. The photos are mostly side window and front windshield views..sometimes his wife's profile is included in the photos, as well as window frames, rearview mirror and side mirrors.     The photos are documentary in style to me and a review on the book jacket says " we have come to know the West through our historical framing of it, from 19th century painters and photographers, to television,and the picture window.  But it is the automobile's windshield that evaluates our most common perception and experience of the West."    I find this to be very true as I have driven through miles and miles of the western landscape and it is nothing like you see on TV!     

Forsman's landscape paintings are very unique and beautiful also. Very unlike the photos in the book even though some might be the same locations.  There are several sites online that show some of his paintings.     

I love this book and I know it will be an inspiration for me.  The photos only have a location with a very brief description, the one with the snow in the collage is called Company Town, Lead, South Dakota.   The viewer has to look deeper to find the story.  

In one of the opening paragraphs in the book, Forsman says "

"We wear our cars. We flaunt them; we taunt, swagger, seduce, conceive and die in them. They reflect our social and marital status, our incomes, recreational inclinations, age, politics, and even our fantasies. We drive to shop, to visit friends, to shuttle kids, to recreate and go anywhere, anytime. ....we commute. It is the way we live...    It is a part of who we are, and it has also become a part of the way we see."

 I think it is the absolute truth for those of us that drive everywhere..even if you don't drive you take a moving vehicle... bus or train or subway for short or longer distance travel.     These  machines and their windows and openings define our vision for most of the time we are moving about.    Walking anywhere is a thing of the past unless you live in the center of the city where everything you need to survive is within walking distance and then your vision is governed by what you see when you walk and is very limited in the space available and the context.   I walk here along our road, I walk in the forests that I have to drive miles to get to that location.   I see things out the window of the car that I find interesting and want to take a photo to remember it or share.  I cannot count the times I have taken photos while Jerry was driving.  I see everything through the windows and being a photographing kind of person, I really hate that sometimes I can't get a photo.
  
This book has been keeping my brain working for two days now.  I keep looking at the photos.  

People ask me all the time why I drive all over South Carolina and other places several times a month.  Because it opens up the world around me in ways that I can't see in any other way.   Just by looking out the car window.   

Good thing I love driving and love traveling.
Good thing I have online friends all over the world who share good stuff!  
Good thing for Blipfoto so I can talk your ear off about things that interest me!