Nine Drives - Automobile As Art - Photograph by Ron Rizzi

Photography: Color, Digital, Ink, Photo on Canvas, Wood, Paper.

The original 'Nine Drives' is an abstract celebration of multiple automobiles in one 3 x 3 matrix of color, texture, light, and personality. Each original individual photographic image is 12 x 12 x 1.5" and assembled together floating in a 40 x 40" black frame.

Each photographic image expresses the artist’s abstract perception, interpretation, and individuality of the machine. Together they create a pictorial expression and emotional comparison of the love of automobile design in all of its beauty and diversity.

This is a beautiful, colorful collection of nine original automobile photographs as seen through the lens and eyes of automobile photographer Ron Rizzi. The original work features 9 individual 12 x 12 x 1.5” gallery-wrapped canvas prints mounted and framed in a three dimensional presentation. Presented here in a matrix of color and abstract shapes on a single photo paper or fine art print of your choice, framed in black or white and ready to hang.

Artist Statement - Ron Rizzi

The first camera I ever had the pleasure of being introduced to was a Brownie 120 Roll Camera. It was fascinating loading the unexposed film on a metal roll from spindle to spindle. Growing up in the sixties, a Kodak Instamatic was a popular tool that boasted fixed focus and aperture settings. Limited by many standards, but the photo was always in the eye of the beholder.

Later in the sixties and the early seventies working in a photography shop as a teen, came an exposure to the Nikon 35mm camera system. A Nikkor lens brought a sense of nirvana to taking a photo. My love for automobiles and rock music came to the center of my focus. Attending rock concerts toting a Nikkormat FTn, a few lenses, and rolls of Ektachrome film became a personal passion. Classic cars, car shows, endurance and Formula 1racing, American LeMans, Watkins Glen, and Road Atlanta were favorite spots.

“Hello” said a Macintosh -- with Page Maker, Photoshop, and Illustrator fueling a new excitement that leveraged a kid’s dream miles further to take a picture and now print it on a laser printer. This passion rekindled into a career in computers, graphics, and high tech for over two decades. Acquired skills, love, and an eye in four thirds matured with each introduction to new technical tools that made the photographic process an adventure and a creative instantaneous revolution.

These days 35mm has become an antique medium. Even a digital SLR seems large and cumbersome in light of the convenience of a smartphone. One thing still remains the same: cars, photography, and a good cup of coffee are still the essence of life!