Smoke and Mirrors – Scott London

SMOKE & MIRRORS:

Cars, Photography and
Dreams of the Open Road

A HOXTON MINI PRESS BOOK

Text by Adam Hay-Nicholls
Photography by Scott London and Others

Published by Hoxton Mini Press
and Penguin Books

“In Smoke & Mirrors, a selection of world-class photographers come together to pay tribute to the car. From Nick Turpin’s images of ‘donut’ skid marks, Todd Hido’s painterly landscapes taken through wet windscreens and William Green’s shots of sleeping Tokyo taxi drivers, these photographs display cars at their most playful, introspective and meaningful, reminding us that there is more to them than just metal and machinery—for cars are emotionally intertwined with the lives we live.”

The camera and the car both have a way of transporting us. Just as the car can whisk us away and open up wide new vistas, photography has a way of stretching our horizons and awakening a sense of freedom and possibility.

Smoke and Mirrors, a new book by Hoxton Mini Press and Penguin Books, explores the connection between the car and the camera through the lens of two-dozen photographers. It’s billed as “a groundbreaking book of car photography, revealing the car’s unique role in our culture.”

“The images in this book, by some of the world’s best photographers, show cars at their most wild, playful and inventive,” writes Adam Hay-Nicholls in the introduction, “reminding us that they are so much more than mere machines: they are vehicles for our deepest hopes, dreams and desires.”

With its stunning cover in reflective silver—like polished chrome—the book is brimming with evocative imagery, from Simon Davidson’s captures of smoky burnouts to James Mollison’s portraits of Libyan “battle trucks” to Matthew Porter’s fanciful car chase images of vehicles flying high above the streets of San Francisco and New York.

One of the chapters in the book is devoted to my “Mutant Vehicles” series. It features photographs of art cars made at Burning Man over a period of several years. The chapter includes an incisive write-up by Adam Hay-Nicholls.

“Every August, a city rises from the desolate and otherworldly Black Rock Desert in Nevada,” he writes. “Eight days later, it vanishes, leaving no trace…. Cars are outlawed here, meaning those wishing to traverse this radical gathering, set upon nine square miles of vast dry lakebed, need to do so in contraptions that are more art than automobile.”

“For the best part of 20 years, the California-based photographer Scott London has been tracking these mutant vehicles. ‘Burning Man is a haven for techies, gearheads and mad geniuses,’ he says. ‘This is reflected in the mutant vehicles. They range from flame-throwing metal rhinos to Spanish galleons to bite-sized cupcakes on wheels.'”

“Art meets the automobile meets the (very) open road in a new book of incredible images,” GQ Magazine says in a review of the book. “At their best, and occasionally their worst, cars have layers of cultural meaning that can be read like a book—and this one is a good place to start.”

Smoke and Mirrors was published in the UK in 2021. It’s now out in an American edition as well. For more information, visit Hoxton Mini Press, or order a copy from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble today.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS
Cars, Photography and Dreams of the Open Road
By Hoxton Mini Press
Text by Adam Hay-Nicholls
Penguin/Random House, 2021, 240 pages.