The Alfred P. Sloan Museum automobile collection at the Sloan*Longway in Flint, Mich., houses incredibly historic vehicles such as a 1910 Buick pickup, 1913 Chevrolet Classic Six, 1951 XP-300 General Motors concept car, 1963 Buick Riviera Silver Arrow I concept car and the pictured 1910 Buick 60 Special race car. Lucky for me, the museum allowed me to photograph each of these notable vehicles.
For our photo shoots, the vehicles were carefully removed from the museum storage facility where they’d been stowed away for years. Former museum caretaker Jacob Gilbert and his team of volunteers prepped each vehicle, then transported it to a private location. I’m always intrigued to see how an automobile that normally spends most of its life in captivity comes to life and undergoes a transformation when allowed to strut its stuff outside its usual four walls. Such museum pieces rarely get an opportunity to show their lines in natural light and when they do, I like to sit back and take it all in as the vehicle settles into the setting and starts to take on a look of its own. When I finally find the optimal angle to photograph them, it’s as if they’re smiling while looking directly into the lens.
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