From Our Archives: Libby Edelman
© Libby Edelman
This interview was originally featured in Issue No. 13 - Women.
ANDREA BLANCH: How did you get into photography?
LIBBY EDELMAN: I got into photography because one of my very first boyfriends was a photographer. We spent most of our hours in the dark room. He taught me everything about the dark room. Then, I just started taking photographs.
ANDREA: Aside from that experience, have you had formal training?
LIBBY: No. I mean, aside from photography workshop classes. My boyfriend taught it to me. I used to only work with black and white film. That’s what he taught me, how to work in the dark room and so on. Actually, when I went to NYU, I took a photography class, which included dark room printing. I probably knew more than the teacher; so, I helped him teach the class.
© Libby Edelman
ANDREA: How did this book come to be and what is your working title?
LIBBY: The working title is Women Who Love Their Cars. I don’t think I’m going to stick with it. I’m searching for the word I really want it to be, but it hasn’t hit me yet. It’s almost like when you start writing you have to come up with that first line. Maybe something like, On The Road, but I think it needs a little bit more than that. Neither are good titles yet. I came up with the idea in the car with my husband and son. My son is 32 now, but this was many years ago. They are always talking about cars. They’ve just got this innate fascination with cars and it hit me one day, “Couldn’t women have the same fascination?” I decided to search and see if they did, and lo and behold, they do. I’m not sure if it’s the same kind of fascination. I think women are much more emotional and they have totally different reasons for loving cars. It’s not necessarily about the engine.
Stella, Orlando, Florida © Libby Edelman
ANDREA: What is it about?
LIBBY: I think it’s the way they live their life in their car. Sometimes the car is really an integral part of their life. Why do women love their shoes? We can’t explain why. It’s just a gut feeling. I have photographed a lot of women now and I’ll have to look back at all my notes and see, but I do find it very emotional. I’m trying to remember how I started the process because, when I started it, my son was nine. I think I went on the computer and I started researching different car clubs. I found a lot of women through friends of mine wherever I lived, and then, through the computer, I started finding more. I photographed some women in Northern California and Southern California. I found a few car clubs, some through friends. I went to Detroit and I photographed this great woman who grew up in the car industry. I can’t remember if she worked for Ford or one of the others in Detroit, but she ended up buying a beat-up Mercedes with gold wings – the one where the car doors go up. She had a few of those in her barn and she was fixing them up herself. I found some amazing women.
ANDREA: How many women have you photographed so far?
LIBBY: Around fifty.
Barry, West Palm Beach © Libby Edelman
ANDREA: How do you choose these women? Do you choose them based on their car, or the other photographs you have in your collection?
LIBBY: First, not all of the photographs are great and not all of them really represent a woman loving her car. Every woman in every car situation is different. For instance, somebody in Florida turned me on to a woman who took house paint and painted her car. I thought that was an interesting idea. I went and photographed her and her car in front of her house, which of course looks identical. She called me up a year later and said, “I’ve done something totally different.” She was a graphic designer and she had made her car into a cartoon. You would have never known it’s the same car. She was so passionate about her car, but it didn’t have to stay the same. I thought it was a great story. Sometimes, what’s intriguing is what she does with the car. It doesn’t have to be the same kind of love, right? There’s a lot of different loves, you know.
ANDREA: Do you ever get a visceral feeling looking at a car? Sometimes I look at a car and I think, “That’s a really sexy car.” I feel it.
LIBBY: Definitely. As I said, I think it reflects the person. I can envision a really sexy woman; she’d want a sexy car, right? I could also say the opposite. A more uptight woman would have the sort of car she hides in. I haven’t photographed that because I haven’t found it, yet.
ANDREA: What advice would you give someone who is starting to do photography?
LIBBY: I think with the iPhone, photography has changed so much. I wish that I had taken a lot more classes. I am tempted to take more classes to learn a little bit more, but I do so much off the cuff. Sometimes, I feel like I really don’t know my camera. So probably my only advice is, whatever tool you’re going to use, really get to know it.
Sandy, Palm Beach Gardens © Libby Edelman
To view the full interview, visit Issue No. 13 - Women.
