This all started as a child in a cold red barn. Heater was forced air and the shop smelled of cigar smoke. Cars were English, my fathers stubborn loves.
I was small enough to slide under the cars to help. Words of an engineers thoughts and those of busted knuckles. I learned about the pleasure and obsession over these intimate spaces early. The floor was either cold or cool. There was an indulable self sufficiency to home mechanics in the late 1970's. A creed that your hands would get dirty and that repairing not replacing a part, a car, a relatio
nship was where you started. There was no internet to solve things, order things, replace things. You made due with what you had, things just took more time. This is where one would find the true relationship and really absorb. A career in a cookie cutter cubicle could never be. One of the other moments associated with these cars in barns was when they sputtered and wailed up the road. A soft, careful left hander slightly off camber. Into a 1/8 mile or so strait where you could coax any car up on cam. Then breaking before a series of S's, over a bridge, into a long uphill right hander... Well we get the point. On those drives at an early age, from the backseat I used to watch and feel as things go by. Blinking my eyes I realized that moments would stop. Dads hands on the wheel with a blurred landscape behind and the tachometer rising. A person walking by a storefront with a picture window reflecting sun and traffic, the spinning wheels under still cars. Once parked and you drunkenly stepped away from this, hot and settling. You could appreciate other things, the practical and beautiful. The engineering behind what made them go, what made the door handle so important and beautiful. And I would blink again. It is these images and the relationship built from spending time with something, that has substantiated the idea behind Barn Cars. Yes things are more efficient now. Parts that would take months to find can now be found over an afternoon at the computer. Then shipped overnight. This is good and it cannot, nor should not be avoided. The ideals from that barn though must remain. That practicality to repair. The curiosity to get your hands dirty and the time spent. I have trouble throwing things away that may make sense to repair something else. Images are built through relationships with subjects, person place or thing. Not found using a "key word". And if we are passionate about something, take the time to be a part of it, not change it. Barn Cars, is photography, restorations, sculpture and is consistently evolving with each project. It is about spending time to become a part of something else. Take some time, enjoy this portfolio
Photography is taken in all formats; Poloroid, film and digital. Most images are for sale in limited series. Shop projects are taken on as they come. For any questions please contact. Chris Todd
Barn Cars USA
