Out after dark in 1970’s New York, the city was a place which saw plenty of nefarious activity going down. One nighttime prowler was photographer Langdon Clay, who had his own reason for traversing the streets when everything was still. On the hunt for cars at rest, the eerie shots he captured of ‘sleeping’ automobiles offer an unsettling glimpse of the city. Taken between 1974 and 1976 from Manhattan to Hoboken, Clay always shot his subjects at night.
Classic Buicks, Chevrolets and Plymouths take center stage in vacant lots and outside diners, bathed in the sickly glow of neon strip lights. The evocative images can be seen together in the new book Cars – New York City 1974-1976 by Langdon Clay, published by Steidl.
