“There is this ongoing joke in the lowriding community about how, in films, when you see lowriders come down the street, you hear menacing music. But really, it’s this incredibly diverse group of people from all walks of life, from all sorts of careers … It’s almost totally misunderstood.”
– Kristin Bedford
In Cruise Night, LA-based photographer Kristin Bedford shows members of the city’s local lowrider tribe around Whittier Boulevard and further afield. The accompanying book includes oral histories by members of the various lowrider clubs speaking about the culture and what it means to them.
Taken in Southern California and Nevada from 2014 to 2019, Bedford looks at how “customizing a car reflects decades of political, cultural and creative self-expression in this community. Over the five years of making these photographs the lowrider family shared the sophistication and complexity of their tradition with me.”
Since its beginnings in the 1940s, the lowrider tradition provided a platform for Mexican Americans to have a voice and be seen. Today there are tens of thousands of lowriders in Los Angeles. The movement is prolific, yet it maintains an element of invisibility in greater society. Lowriding is often pigeonholed as simplistic folk art and stereotyped by the media as crude and dangerous. I have seen a different reality – a refined and beautiful tradition of self-expression that is passed down between generations.
“Lowriding is not just a fashion statement. It‘s about [Mexican-American] history and pride. It’s a way of saying, ‘I’m not going to be discriminated against.’”
– Bedford
Via: Cruise Night by Damiani.
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
