Finishing up my photo compendium this week, I made a couple of changes to the final construction of my photobook. Firstly, I chose not to print a book out. The final day that I had to shoot, at the Dutton Garage in Richmond, was yesterday. That gave me one day to shoot, pick and edit the photos that I would need for my photo, and I also knew I would be taking a lot of photos that I would need to choose from.

I also chose not to have interviews for my compendium. The main reason that I chose to do this was firstly because the salespeople at Dutton Garage told me that they would be too busy to be interviewed on the showroom floor. Secondly, I chose not to have interviews because the process of approaching strangers, especially at the Benalla Historic Car Races, would be confronting and challenging for both me and the interviewee.

To compensate, I have chosen photos from my collection that link people and cars together. I had a fair few shots of both people and cars in frame. I was concerned about privacy and consent, but the figures in the photos are unidentifiable so it’s appropriate to use them. I also tried to focus on making connections between cars and people over a period of time. There are a couple of photos of older people admiring cars at the car show, and at the Dutton Garage there was a display up on the wall of young people admiring them as well.

The most difficult part of my experience was working out where to go to take photos. There are not many car meet-ups happening locally at this time of the year, and most car shows that are on are in other states or simply to far away. Fortunately, I was able to make it to Benalla and I managed to gather strong material at the Dutton Garage. I also had help from the official photographer there who toured me around the showrooms and gave me help and advice on technical and aesthetic concerns when photographing vehicles.