Autophoto: Cars & Photography, 1900 to Now - by Xavier Barral & Philippe Séclier (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The camera's romance with the car: a love story to the automobile in photography

The ultimate gift for car enthusiasts and photography lovers alike.

Autophoto is a stunning visual journey that celebrates the deep, decades-long connection between the automobile and the art of photography. Perfect for coffee tables, collectors, and anyone fascinated by the beauty of cars, this lavish book showcases how the car has transformed not only our roads but the way we see the world.

Featuring over 500 photographs by 100 iconic photographers--including legends like Robert Frank, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and Daido Moriyama--this book captures everything from gleaming chrome curves to dusty highways, neon-lit gas stations to sleek modern design.

Whether it's a reflection in a rearview mirror or the sweeping geometry of a freeway, these images reveal the car as a symbol of freedom, identity, and style. Autophoto also includes exclusive projects like French artist Alain Bublex's reimagined car models, in-depth essays, and behind-the-scenes commentary from artists and scholars.

Beautifully designed and intellectually rich, Autophoto is more than a photography book--it's a tribute to the culture, design, and dream of the automobile.

An unforgettable gift for car lovers, design buffs, and art book collectors.

Review Quotes

[Autophoto] makes it easy to understand why photographers' romance with the car may be as strong as ever.--Eric Nagourney "The New York Times: Lens Blog"

By the end of the 19th century, the camera and the car had helped pave the way for a new, more modern perspective - images by freezing time, from multiple perspectives, and automobiles by speeding things up--Susanna D'Aliesio "British Journal of Photography"

Capturing the geometric design of roadways, the reflections in a rear-view mirror or our special relationship with this object of desire, these photographers invite us to look at the world of the automobile in a new way.--David Hurren "DriveTribe"

Cars and cameras grew up together as siblings.... A comfortable comparison can be made with having a photo in focus and having a car in the correct gear.... A lot of that has to do with taking the machine in your hands seriously--much like taking the car that you're sitting in seriously.--Florence Walker "Petrolicious"

Fasten your seatbelts...--De Bellaigue "Ad Magazine"

The stunning car photographs that capture the 20th century.... not only tells the shifting story of society's attitudes towards motorcars, but also provides an overview of important developments within the century's photography itself.--Alastair Sooke "Financial Times"

The Cartier, 'Autophoto' is long overdue. Ever since the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain hosted the incredible Hommage à Ferrari 30 years ago, we've been waiting for another one of its automotive photo exhibitions. But it's finally here and it looks incredible.-- "GQ"

This is the catalogue from a nearly impossibly ambitious exhibition of international photography about people and cars. Big and heavy like a school textbook, the catalogue ends up hitting most of the marks, and is a massive, thoughtful, and even, somehow, modest encyclopedia of the genre.-- "Center for Land Use Interpretation"

This new presentation revisits photography's relationship to the automobile; how the car provided photographers with a new subject, a new point of view and new way of exploring the world... how the automobile has reshaped our landscape, extended our geographic horizons and altered our, and notably artists', concept of space and time.-- "Aesthetica Magazine"

What may be the most ambitious exhibit of car-focused photography ever ... flat-out beautiful images.--Bill Shapiro "Popular Mechanics"

Works range from an Eve Arnold's iconic 1961 images of Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits... to the work of photographers who have made the subject matter their own, like William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, and Robert Frank. [T]he diversity of images included is a testament to the ingenuity of photography and the various permutations that it can achieve.... many subtle threads that can be picked up on, giving plenty to satisfy the curious and knowledgeable.... One of these threads is changing the collective cultural memory of the car.--Sarah Hyde "Artnet"