Thursday, February 12, 2009
What you see here is the classy smile of a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante, one of not all that many handsome streamlined coupes to emerge from the factory in Molsheim, France. Last August, it sold at auction in Pebble Beach, California, for a not-unsubstantial $7.9m.
Carmi is all about “up” this week, and as I searched the ol’ slombard archives for a photographic perspective that fits that category, this one struck me. I took several shots of the Bugatti from this angle, laying my camera on the ground and craning it blindly to capture the long silver slats and that distinctive badge. After a dozen or so attempts, capturing everything from the bumper to the ceiling to not quite enough of the badge, this one put a smile on my face.
What you see here are the dual chromed exhaust pipes that fall elegantly from the long, vented hood of a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Sport Cabriolet, with one-off coachwork by Erdmann & Rossi.
They remind me of the arms of the robot in the 1960s TV series, “Lost in Space.” You know the one, the Model B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot who always ran around flailing his chromed exhaust pipes shouting, “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”
These downdraft Weber carburetors sit atop the 3-liter V12 of a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder. Cal Spyders are rare indeed, and the short-wheelbase variant, as this car is, with covered headlights, as this car has, is about as rare as it gets.
Webers are the nostrils for this rorty Italian engine, breathing deeply to produce 280 horsepower and a host of delightful noises. They are by no means the sexiest part of this very sexy car, but on this particular example, s/n 1963GT, they are part of an untouched, unrestored package replete with oily metal, crunchy rubber, dimpled sheetmetal, cracked paint, hazy glass, marked leather, worn wood, and dusty recesses. This Ferrari is patina.
It could very well bring $5 million when it crosses the auction block this weekend in Arizona.
This week’s Thematic Photographic is “new.”
I haven’t been behind the lens in quite some time. There’s a lot going on in my life at the moment, and my camera is often an afterthought. As in, “Damn, I wish I had my camera with me right now.”
But participating in this little project of Carmi’s provides an excellent chance to look through my images once a week. Heck, one of these days I might even snap some new ones that relate directly to the latest theme.
In the meantime, here is Adele, aged two weeks at the time the photo was taken. So new to this world, and already so aware. Amazing.
Anciency.
Now there’s a word. I’ve just made it up. Like “ancient,” but a noun. And apt here, I think. There is a great deal of anciency to this image. In the arthritic juniper, in the surrounding sage, in the long, deep, winding canyon. In the Henry Mountains beyond, in the clouds above. Anciency.
Seems just yesterday we were all panicky and nervous that the world was going to blow up when the clock ticked over to 2000. Nine years later, we’re all here (less Paul Newman and a few others). Personally, I’m more inclined to believe the shit will really go down in 2012; I like to think the Mayans knew a thing or two.
All this is apropos of nothing, really. Only that it’s another year and I’ve yet to slap something up here. And what image better captures the undercurrent of apocalypse in the years to come than a bleak house in southern Utah?
Sunday, December 21, 2008
We are as socked in as Portland gets, now with about six twelve inches on the ground, temps in the 20s, and freezing rain on the way.
But I did brave the unplowed, untrodden boulevards yesterday to shoot some wintry pics. Found this one looking down the Broadway Bridge and am particularly fond of everything going on here. It’s a busy, lonely scene.
