THE PRE-APERTURE APERTURE

By MICHAEL PERKINS

SHOOTING PHOTOS THROUGH A CAR WINDOW IS A PRECISE SCIENCE, much like loading mercury with a pitchfork. And while such images are occasionally among my happiest of happy accidents, we’re not talking about a procedure I’d recommend to the timid, or the impatient. Just think for a moment about all the impediments you have to navigate just to get a decent framing from a moving vehicle in the first place: rear view and side view mirrors: visors: dashboards: wipers: grime, grit, and dust: rain: warps: reflections: unwanted shadows: “C” pillars….. I could go on, but it’s just a lot simpler to say that, as a window, a window makes a lousy window.

But let’s suppose that you sidestep all those tiger traps. How much composing space are we talking for this “pre-aperture aperture”? And at what cockeyed angle? Chance are, even before you try to navigate the various “whoops” factors and do your standard calculation for exposure and so on, you’re going to feel the car quake as it bonks over a pothole, heave forward to avoid a late-crossing cat, or compensate for a stray ray of flare. At this point, any usable picture that results will be beyond heroic and qualify as damn near miraculous. So why do we sally forth on this Quixotic quest?

High Time at Hollywood & Highland, 2026

Well, really for the same reason we attempt any kind of picture under any kind of conditions; because it might work out. We are so hungry for success that we’re also gluttons for punishment. And consider that, in some circles, the impediments from my earlier list are actually regarded by some as more real, more authentic, desirable elements of the picture. Oh, yes, I meant to frame that billboard so that the rear-view mirror obscures half of it (hey, it got Dennis Hopper a career retrospective at the Met). As usual, your motives, and what you’ll endure to achieve them, are yours alone. Me, I’m transactional about the whole window thing. Do I need the picture? Will I ever pass this way again? Have I got time to juggle everything and maybe succeed despite everything? And on the off chance that it all works out, will I appear suitably humble?