Parking Snap: The Satisfaction of Matching Cars With Streets in 1970s New York City

Between 1976 and 1978 Langdon Clay walked New York City and Hoboken photographing cars that blended in with their streets and stores

Colonial Car, Chevrolet Nova 230, Hoboken, NJ, 1975

Colonial Car, Chevrolet Nova 230, Hoboken, NJ, 1975

“Walking from a friend’s apartment at the end of an evening back to my place, I began to see curious things inside the cars on the street, like a tire nestled like a passenger in the front seat,” photographer Langdon Clay tells Road & Track. “Then I studied the cars themselves, their design details. Finally I stepped physically (and mentally) back a bit to regard the whole scene—a background field with a foreground vehicle. When those two elements clicked—in color, or light, or design—then I knew I was on to something… I looked for cars that would fit with and work with the background. Or the reverse, cars that clashed and looked out of place with where they were parked.

There’s fun to be had in spotting patterns and things that just go together. Michelle Maguire and Kelsey McClellan’s Wardrobe Snacks paired food with fashion. Here Langdon shows us America’s 1970s signature cars, the long, wide ones with their own Zip codes, in their natural habitats. Between 1976 and 1978, Langdon walked the street of New York city and nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, with an eye for parked cars that went with their settling and buffed by neon light. “They were all there, motionless, quietly parked. They were staring at me, standing still at the foot of the buildings. Side by side, as if they could create a kind of geographical and imaginary map of this city that I have loved so much.”

 

Subway Impala, Chevrolet Impala, 7th Avenue and 29th Street, 1975 FacebookTwitterPinterest

Subway Impala, Chevrolet Impala, 7th Avenue and 29th Street, 1975
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24 Checker car, Checker Marathon, in the Twenties near 6th Avenue, 1975

24 Checker car, Checker Marathon, in the Twenties near 6th Avenue, 1975

Orange Ghia, Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, west of meatpacking district, 1975

Orange Ghia, Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, west of meatpacking district, 1975

Masking-tape car, Brougham, West Village, 1976

Masking-tape car, Brougham, West Village, 1976

MHT Gremlin, West Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue, 1975

MHT Gremlin, West Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue, 1975

Hopscotch car, north of West Village, 1974

Spirit of '76 car, Dodge Dart Light, Lower Chelsea, 1976.

Spirit of ’76 car, Dodge Dart Light, Lower Chelsea, 1976.

Kojak cop car, Plymouth Fury, in the Twenties garment district, 1975

Kojak cop car, Plymouth Fury, in the Twenties garment district, 1975

Eigen Supply car, Buick Centurion Convertible, Twenty-fourth Street near Sixth Avenue, 1976

Eigen Supply car, Buick Centurion Convertible, Twenty-fourth Street near Sixth Avenue, 1976

Lobby car, Rambler Classic, 1250 Avenue of the Americas, 1976

Lobby car, Rambler Classic, 1250 Avenue of the Americas, 1976

Marlin Room car, Cutlass Supreme in front of Marlin Room and Lounge connected to Clam Broth House, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1975

Marlin Room car, Cutlass Supreme in front of Marlin Room and Lounge connected to Clam Broth House, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1975

Plymouth Duster, 1974

Plymouth Duster, 1974

Fountain car, Oldsmobile Cutlass, 1975

Fountain car, Oldsmobile Cutlass, 1975

New York White Tower car, Buick LeSabre, Meatpacking District, 1976.

White Tower car, Buick LeSabre, Meatpacking District, 1976.

King's Inn Car, Chevrolet Caprice, Hoboken, NJ, 1975

King’s Inn Car, Chevrolet Caprice, Hoboken, NJ, 1975

Via: Cars – New York City 1974-1976 by Langdon Clay, is published by Steidl, Polka Gallery, Paris.

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