First published 2019
Matthew Porter transforms classic American muscle cars into airborne sculptures. His twenty-five photographs freeze these vehicles at the peak of their flight over city intersections and highway crossings. Each image resembles a film still from an action movie chase sequence, but Porter strips away the narrative momentum. The cars hang suspended above the pavement while urban landscapes arrange themselves in careful compositions around the frame edges. Porter draws inspiration from cinema's spectacular car chases, but he isolates the visual drama from any story. These machines represent both obsolete technology and peak performance engineering. They embody masculine American culture yet appear vulnerable in their eternal suspension. The photographs blend hyperreal precision with documentary observation of American topography. Porter creates a visual contradiction between nostalgic celebration and ironic commentary on this cultural symbol.
Genres: art, american, photography, americana
Vibes: intimate, ironic, thought-provoking
Tropes: nostalgic-celebration, visual-contradiction
Setting: America, City
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
Paperback · Aperture