PJ: Where did the idea come from to do this series?
BC: In 1985, while stationed at Clovis Air Force Base in New Mexico, I saw a 1918 International Truck and thought it looked really interesting and shot some pictures of it with a 35mm Nikon.
PJ: Did you plan upon doing the series in its current form right from the get go?
BC: No, not back in 85. I think when I decided to actually start shooting it as series was in 1997 or 1998 down in New Philadelphia (OH). I saw a 39 Ford Truck and I think that’s pretty much the first one I shot. Then I started seeing more of these old cars and just started shooting them. Then I really started seeking them out; asking and talking to people about where they are, driving down roads that had never been down before, taking different roads to work. That kind of stuff.
PJ: How many cars have you shot for the series to date?
BC: Maybe 85 cars. Some of them I need to reshoot. Some of them are just in such a place that it’s almost impossible to get a picture of them. There’s an old Dodge truck I’ve tried to shoot three times. I just can’t get it because it’s in this little hollow and you can only get to it in the winter time, and the light down there is just horrendous. The brush is also really bad. It’s in a place that’s just really hard to get to.
PJ: Has this car made it into the series yet?
BC: No, there are a couple that I’ve shot that aren’t in the series yet.
PJ: How much of the series can be seen in your Photojournalistas photo-essay?
BC: About 90%
PJ: How do you go about finding the cars that you shoot, what’s the method?
BC: Well a lot of times when I find one I’ll wait until I can find someone there, and then I’ll go shoot it. Sometimes I’ll show them prints from the series or talk to them or whatever, and a lot of times they’ll tell me something like ‘Hey if you like this one you ought to go down the road to Dave’s, you know Dave’s got a couple of them down there.’ Then you go down to Dave’s and he leads you to more and it just builds. Probably around half of the cars I’ve shot I’ve just found, and the other half are those that someone told me about.
