L.A. Ghost Wheels is an ongoing street photography project begun in 2014, with over 350 photographs to date. The project is an "I Spy" game of vintage cars on the streets of Los Angeles. It wasn't exactly healthy for L.A. to become defined by car culture in the mid-twentieth century, but it has left us with a fleet of unique classic vehicles still out and about as the city is redefined in the twenty-first century, this time by gentrification and its attendant homogenization. In this context, vintage cars emerge as colorful old-timers, the embodiments of their (original) owners--classic Hollywood stars, drag racers, lowriders, surfers, rockers, and the proverbial Little Old Lady from Pasadena. I'm just glad to see them hanging in there in this increasingly less livable city, making the streets, ironically, more human.
A panel of respected local photographers--Jerry DeWilde, Catherine McGann, and Ara Oshagan--selected this L.A. Ghost Wheels photograph as one of four professional category winners in a 2018 competition and exhibition held by California District Assemblymember Laura Friedman. (The annual “Gallery 43” invites residents of assembly district 43 to submit photographs taken in the district.) The photograph hung in Friedman's office for the year.
