Cruise Night is about the art of being seen. Catching the eye of a young woman. Falling in love. All
while cruising down a boulevard. It is a glimpse at the beauty and grace of the car as a mobile canvas.
These images arise from three years of immersing myself in Los Angeles’ tight-knit Mexican
American lowrider community. The term "lowrider" refers to both a customized car and its driver. The
lowrider tradition dates back to 1940s Los Angeles, when teenagers experimented with transforming
their cars to reflect their personal style and sense of independence. Decades later, this youthful
impulse to customize cars has grown into a cultural movement.
Cruise Night is an invitation to question prior depictions of the Mexican American lowrider tradition,
typically portrayed as crude and dangerous. With these images, I offer an intimate look at the style,
romance, and history of this American art form.
Kristin Bedford is a photographer who focuses on long-term visual studies of where we live, the streets we walk down, the places we worship in, the homes we create, and the spaces between them all. Her subjects have included religious movements, street culture in numerous urban centers, the modern day legacy of historic African American communities, and Chicano lowrider car culture.
Bedfords work has been featured in The New York Times, Esquire, The Huffington Post and Slate. Her photographs are part of the permanent collection at the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University and are included in numerous private collections. Bedford has exhibited internationally.
She resides in Los Angeles and works on photography projects throughout the U.S.
