Since the first lowriders rolled out of Los Angeles more than 70 years ago, the ground-hugging, customized cars have served as mobile canvasses for vibrant self-expression, Mexican American pride, and cultural resistance. The essence of that movement is captured by the photographer Kristin Bedford in her new book, Cruise Night, a collection of 75 color photos and interviews which she hopes will transport readers to the passenger seats of.
Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNN
In the back of a 1952 Chevy Deluxe, a woman brushes back her hair, her heavily lined eyes closed in a moment of quiet, the words No Soy De Ti ( I don t belong to you ) inked across her chest. Mary is a member of the Vintage Ladies Car Club, a Chicana lowriding community based in Los Angeles County, and she s one of the many lowriders photographer Kristin Bedford features in her five-year body of work Cruise Night, which portrays the interiority of both her subjects and their cars. Cruise Night, recently published as a book, is a compendium of the vibrant velvet and leather interiors, wire wheels and dazzling paint jobs that make up the cars of the Mexican American lowriding community, bathed in Los Angeles idiosyncratic golden hours or the artificial glow of ambient light at night.
The First Art Newspaper on the Net
BILOXI, MS
.-The Ohr-OKeefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi announced a major donation of 50 artworks by Los Angeles-based, advocate and collector Gordon W. Bailey. The transformative gift features African American artists Leroy Almon, David Butler, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Minnie Evans, Roy Ferdinand, Sandy Hall, Clementine Hunter, Charlie Lucas, Juanita Rogers, Sulton Rogers, Welmon Sharlhorne, Herbert Singleton, Willie White, and Purvis Young; Native Americans, Silas and Bertha Claw, Betty Manygoats, Elizabeth Manygoats, Wallace Nez, and Lorraine Williams; and Southern potters, Burlon Craig, Cheever Meaders, and Lanier Meaders. On behalf of the board and the OKeefe family, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Mr. Bailey for making this generous donation of important artworks, said Jeffrey H. OKeefe, In addition to enriching the museums permanent collection by adding Native American an . More
Latinx Lowrider car culture photographed in Kristin Bedford s Cruise Night
Kristin Bedfords Cruise Night (published by Damiani), takes us behind the curtain of this misunderstood subculture.
LOS ANGELES, CA
.- Kristin Bedfords new photo book Cruise Night pulls back the curtain on LAs Mexican American lowrider car culture, aiming to tackle the misconceptions and celebrate the uniqueness of this marginalized community. Bedford is the first woman to create an original large-scale body of work about this American movement. Cruise Night is available to purchase from Tuesday May 4, 2021.
Since its beginnings in the 1940s, the prolific lowrider tradition has provided a platform for Mexican Americans to have a voice and be seen. Today there are tens of thousands of lowriders in Los Angeles, still, lowriding is often pigeonholed as craft or folk art and stereotyped as crude and dangerous. Through intimate and unstaged photography, Bedford reveals a different reality a tradit
Obituary: James R. Fahey
WESTBROOK - James R. Fahey, 75, passed away March 3, 2021 at Maine Medical Center with his family by his side. .
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James R. Fahey
WESTBROOK – James R. Fahey, 75, passed away March 3, 2021 at Maine Medical Center with his family by his side. He was born Nov. 30, 1945, a son of James and Madelyn (Newhall) Fahey.
Jim grew up in Portland, and was a graduate of Portland High School. Following school, he proudly served in the Navy. Upon his honorable discharge he returned home to Maine, working at various jobs before becoming a firefighter with the Portland Fire Department. He spent 22 years with the department before transferring to the City of Westbrook where he was deputy fire chief for over 10 years. Jim had a true passion for civil service and was also a part-time police officer for the City Westbrook. A hard worker who took pride in providing for his family, Jim also held many other jobs; most notably the Fahey Driving Academy where he taught coun