L.A. Crossing

Is driving thousands of kilometers by car with a camera through Los Angeles a dream or a nightmare? In his long-term project L.A. CROSSING, which has been in the making since 2010, Jens Liebchen shows us the capital of unconditional automotive mobility in the way that most Angelenos prefer to see it: through their car windows. There is no other city in which the maxim I drive, therefore I am has more validity than in L.A. The images, in which various elements of Liebchen’s rental cars are always visible, are a meditation on how urban space and a city’s lifestyle are shaped by dominant forms of mobility. Cars determine who belongs to society and who is allowed to move around freely. An icon of photographic art, Stephen Shore’s 'La Brea/Beverly' serves as a theoretical basis for Liebchen’s work. Beginning with the 'La Brea Matrix Project', which was centered around Shore’s photograph, Liebchen has reversed the common view and now looks back from the street to the city. Instead of stopping like Lee Friedlander (in 'America by Car') or following a strict gird like Ed Ruscha (in 'Every Building on the Sunset Strip'), Liebchen drives and drives and drives. From the privileged and air-conditioned perspective of the driver’s seat, he shows us the lights and shadows of the city of angels-the stuff of great cinema from the dream factory.