Andrew Bush

Many of us know that automobiles are expressions of our individuality and personality. We may not realize, however, that the car can also provide the most space over which we have complete control in our daily lives. Being in the car is private and public at the same time, akin to lounging in one's living room while simultaneously appearing on stage. Andrew Bush (b. 1956) examines this tension between private and public in his remarkable series of photographs of individuals driving cars in and around Los Angeles. By attaching a camera to the passenger side window, Bush made these pictures while driving alongside his subjects – often traveling at 60 mph. Taking notes on the speed and direction he was going, Bush created extended captions for the images and called the series Vector Portraits. Published here for the first time, this portfolio is accompanied by an essay by culture critic Patt Morrison and an interview between the photographer and Jeff L. Rosenheim that discusses the Vector Portraits in the context of Bush's photography as a whole.