Cars and culture: our driving passions

Car romance

Cars are accessories of modern love life. They can be fetish objects or characters in television, movies and literature.

Henry Talbot photographed Margot McKendry and champion swimmer Murray Rose modelling Pelaco shirts and the Falcon Futura for Vogue Australia in 1963.

Talbot, along with Athol Shmith, was a leading fashion photographer of the 1950s and 1960s. Both also produced advertising photos for Holden and Ford. In their work, cars became props in the world of fashion and society

Cars have become metaphors for different experiences, personalities and cultures. In the work of artist Margaret Dodd, the FJ Holden is linked with the lives and images of women. She cast her Bridal costume sculpture in fibreglass from a real FJ — a car that is unusually loaded with memories and associations for many Australians.

Moderns on the move. Photograph by Henry Talbot, 1963

Moderns on the move. Photograph by Henry Talbot, 1963. Powerhouse Museum collection, reproduced courtesy of Henry Talbot.

Bridal costume for an FJ Holden, discarded, a fibreglass structure by Margaret Dodd, 1988.

Bridal costume for an FJ Holden, discarded, a fibreglass structure by Margaret Dodd, 1988. Powerhouse Museum collection. Photo by Ken Dolling, reproduced courtesy of Margaret Dodd and Gallery 460, Gosford.