People & Cars

1990 Lincoln Town Car Lowrider -- Photograph by Corine Vermeulen-Smith

Corine Vermeulen-Smith finally has an American car. Sort of. After a couple years in Detroit, away from her native home in the Netherlands, she decided to go with that steadfast of the safe class, pragmatic in all the ways Detroit is not; the Volvo 240 DL. A perfect vehicle for an expat in the Motor City to figure out what happens when 3000lbs of Swedish practicality meets the American trashcan, or mailbox, at 4.6mph.

Just like people in Los Angeles, Corine’s greatest fear behind the wheel was merging onto the freeway. “I started out in the parking lot behind my house and that’s when I met and began photographing a group of Lowrider enthusiasts,” she explains. The series of photographs that emerged is a work in progress unassumingly titled “People & Cars”. For the moment it includes, among others, an ivy green ‘83 Chevrolet Caprice Classic; a grandmama gray ‘93 Fleetwood Cadillac, and, our favorite, an iceman blue ‘90 Lincoln Town Car complete with matching driver.

Corine is part of a small wave (the kind of wave that slaps at your knees but doesn’t knock you over) of artists and intrepid souls who see the dearth of, well, everything, in Detroit as an opportunity to capture the grim beauty of urban decay at its nadir and, simultaneously, lend a hand to the reinvention of Detroit for the next generation. Corine wants to document a moment in time when the automobile - a symbol of not just Detroit, but American identity - has become unsustainable in its current form. To do so she’s going deep into the Detroit car culture. “I’ve focused on lowriders and their owners so far, but I plan on going into other car subcultures; donks, old schools, tuner cars…” She lost us at “donks,” but if there are more photos like these to follow, then get that hunk of Swedish metal on the road and find them, we say.

You can see more of Corine’s work here.

Fleetwood Cadillac

Chevrolet Fleetline

Chevrolet Caprice Classic

Cadillac Coupe Deville

Chevrolet Cutlass Supreme

Or, see ‘em bigger in the Gallery: