Los Angeles Artist Trio Packs People into Cars, With Hilarious Results

Los Angeles is a city known for its car culture. There are very few pedestrians, a handful of bikes, and an unreliable public transit system. Cars and Bodies is a collaborative project between photographer Yann Rabanier, director and videographer Romain Dussaulx and architect, Thomas Cestia. The series is a comment on our societies dependence on vehicles.

These artists take the idea of “car culture” up a notch. In each image, they recruit their friends and acquaintances to squeeze as many people into cars as they possibly can. Heads, feet, elbows and legs can be seen through windows or poking out of them – there is no empty space left. According to Dussaulx, it sometimes took several hours to fit everyone in and arrange limbs just right.

Always a different car, a different group of people and a new location – each representing LA’s various and sprawling districts. For example, in the Venice Beach photo, we find an old Fiat 500 packed with basketball players, their legs stretching out the top and through the open window.

“Most of the people in the cars didn’t know each other when we started but they definitely felt close after the shoot,” said Dussaulx in an interview. “I’m pretty sure that a lot of those people are now friends.”

All images © Romain Dussaulx, Yann Rabanier & Thomas Cestia

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