Don't be put off by the book's subtitle 'America in ruins' because it doesn't refer to crumbling rust-belt factories, redundant shopping malls or closed theatres. Photographer Danny Lyon focuses on a rather narrow lot of ruins: the car junkyard. Randy Kennedy, in his introduction, says 'Derelict houses eventually crumble or get demolished, but chassis and chrome can live on for decades'. Very true, because on page sixteen is a photo of a 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline, twenty-eight shows an early 1940s Chevrolet Pickup, thirty-five reveals an almost gone 1930s four-door sedan.
The book's eighty-six photos are an interesting mix of complete cars, rusting nicely, close-ups of front chrome bumpers, doors, smashed windscreens, interiors and several of those Detroit hood ornaments including, on page 113, a lovely acrylic Indian head on a 1953 Pontiac Chieftan Deluxe. Some wrecks seem to have bullets holes visible. I liked the way Lyon frequently included some vegetation slowly growing and taking over the rusting and broken parts of these vehicles.
UK
