Ryan Schude’s “Them & Theirs” Featured in Slate

Slate’s photography blog, Behold, recently featured Ryan Schude’s project “Them & Theirs.”

Photographer Ryan Schude’s series “Them and Theirs” is a vibrant, sometimes whimsical take on car culture mostly in and around Los Angeles. The project, which began in San Francisco in 2001 while Schude was studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, initially focused on people with vanity license plates. He put the project on hold and didn’t begin shooting it again regularly for nearly a decade.

Although many of the subjects are friends or friends of friends, Schude said he has also found people by “placing a postcard with an example of someone else’s car portrait under a stranger’s windshield wiper with a note explaining that I’d like for them to participate.” Before each session, Schude said he has a lengthy discussion with each portrait subject in order to determine the location and focus of the shoot. “The concepts spring up organically after we have decided on a location, while props and wardrobe lend a hand at shaping the end product,” he said.

Head on over to Slate to read the full story!