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Introduce a concept: types of photographers. There is a type

of photographer called car peekers. What they do

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Main focus
1. Why car peekers exist 2. Car’s unique position in the
realm of art.

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This is my favorite out of 4000 photos I took in Britain. How I
took it
Cars can be aesthetically beautiful. And it is a shared goal for
car designers to make the car beautiful. They calculate
proportions, apply aesthetic rules, only to make the car
pleasing to the eye so that people will buy them. As in this
case.... curve color
The power of photography has reduced itself to the sheer
ability to capture moments, to record mutual existence in
space and time, not only of the object, but also of the
subject, the photographers themselves. It’s only the
photographer shouting: It was there, and I was also there. It’s
a shitty picture.

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Based on this photo, I want to analyze How cars(as a unique
form of art), as the epitome of mechanical reproduction,
level themselves high in the realm of modern art by
somehow maintaining both the magical aura that only
traditional arts, before the era of mechanical reproduction,
would possess mentioned by Benjamin in his essay, and the
deep accessibility and interactivity held by modern media
arts like typography, photography or cinema as a vital
advantage over their predecessors.

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Cars maintain their close distance to us. Cars are interactive.
Apart from its aesthetic values, its pure nature will only be
about driving, which is a common skill possessed by most
people. While we would have no idea about what to do
about a masterpiece on canvas beside looking at it, since we
are not the master himself, we know we can drive the car like
everyone else no matter how precious the car is. As Benjamin
mentioned about new art making “more readers become
writers.” , in this case, appreciators can be a part of art itself,
they can be even dominant over art. And of course,
theoretically speaking, any car can be reproduced, and cars
are assessed by price. They can be broke into figures, data on
the computer. All these make them still in the world of
science and cause-effect relation.

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Cars are the epitome of mechanical reproduction, yet they
can have “aura”. There are many reasons. They can be rare,
they are private, mobile. They are big, three-dimension, they
make noise, they are active. As for a Porsche 356 Speedster,
because of the first three reasons. it requires will and huge
luck to witness a Porsche 356 Speedster stretching itself in
the old streets of Edinburgh. Most arts are preserved in fixed
locations. Paintings and sculptures are in museums or
chapels, Mona Lisa will be always in the Louvre, Giotto’s
fresco will be always in the Arena Chapel. Movies are most
shown in cinemas as concerts are mostly held in music halls
or arenas, or now you can simply enjoy them at home. You
might have not seen Mona Lisa, but you know if you want to,
you definitely can. But while I was desperate to see a 356, I
had no idea where to find it, it could be anywhere anytime, in
some ways, subjectively, its existence is inconsistent and
unpredictable.
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Then you might say they can be photographed, printed and
widely-spread, wouldn’t that be enough? However, because
of the sheer size and its 3D nature, any form of 2D
reproduction or even proportional 3D models will drastically
diminish a car’s aesthetic value. Not to mention, most
importantly, the “gravity” it has when you are standing near it
in person, listening it roars, feeling the air and ground shaking
as it goes by. The size, the sound, the gravity, the ambience it
brings, coming at you from all dimensions, mimic the feeling
that standing in front of a fresco in a chapel bestows you, and
sometimes you couldn’t tell if a car is the vehicle of art or the
car is art itself. which means a car, as a form of art, is both
mobile and always in situ.

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Then why take this picture, since the value will diminish so
much in 2D? Why car peekers exist?
Actually, for car lovers, in some ways, a car’s status is not in
parallel with art, such as the fresco in the Sistine Chapel, it’s
higher, it’s in the same realm with what’s in the fresco of
Sistine Chapel. They are almost inaccessible, because they are
rare, unpredictable, and leave no trace, so that most of us
have never seen them, yet we know everything about them.
Their look, their identities, their stories, their myths, because
we see icons for them, worship them in privacy since young,
hear their stories, which makes them in another way so
accessible. It is said that it requires ever-strong will, loyalty
and fortune to have the privilege to meet them in person.
And those fortunate men will be so thrilled that they want
the world to know their experience, they record their
experience, spread it, publish it, so that others can know,
they can know what it is like to meet them in person, how
perfect and profound they are, and the craze goes on and on,
with more and more people falling for it. So, if THERE IS A
things as RELIGION , THERE ARE MISSIONARIES, THERE ARE
SAINTS.