'Car Window Syndrome'

Glimpses of fall as it passes us by...

Our first fall in western Massachusetts was one for the books, at least it seemed that way to us. Now we know why going to New England “to see the foliage” is something people do. The Great Fall of 2024 was so spectacular that capturing it felt impossible, and also maybe pointless. I say that, knowing very well that our latest art drop (Diana’s Golden Tree on Golden Hill) is indeed a photograph of fall, but when a scene like that presents itself what can you do but give in to it?

A Photo-Phenomenon

It took until now for me to make sense of a phenomenon that I have named ‘car window syndrome’ or CWS for short. Whether you are a photographer or not, you might relate to this. Picture the scene:

You are in a car driving through twisting country roads. Maybe you’re the driver, maybe you’re a passenger, but you see countless scenes passing you by that are worthy of a photograph. For photographers this can feel like lost potential and missed opportunities, but seeing photographs from the car is always a challenge – there will definitely be a car behind you when you need to stop abruptly, or maybe there isn’t a suitable place to pull over. At some point though you muster the willpower to get out of the car and make a photograph of one of those scenes.

But something is off. It doesn’t feel right. You get home and import the images. That’s not what you saw from the car. Why doesn’t it look as good as it did in my head when we were driving?

That’s CWS.

When CWS is at play, your brain is processing many elements that you probably don’t consider at the time. The motion blur of whatever is in the foreground: passing trees, guardrails, fences. There is the frame-within-a-frame of the subject through your window or windshield. Maybe there’s a tint on some of your auto glass that is affecting the colors. Even the music you were playing in the car at the time has a role to play. And of course, the fleeting glimpse of the subject you noticed – the light catches it just right as you drive past, and then that moment is gone. All these ingredients disappear when you stop the car and compose your photograph from the verge. I don’t even think a short clip of video would have done it justice. What you saw was for your eyes only, a short scene in the movie that is your life.

It was this season’s fall colors in the Berkshires that fully brought car window syndrome to my attention. So many stunning scenes passed us by as we did the school run, or went out to do errands. The urge to capture them was strong, and most of them were lost. But that’s Ok.

However, below are some of the photographs we did manage to make during our fall driving; some from within the car, some not.

Photograph by Diana Pappas.

Photograph by Tom Bland.

Photograph by Tom Bland.

Photograph by Diana Pappas.

(CWS). Photograph by Tom Bland.

Photograph by Diana Pappas.

Art Drop #18

There isn’t much time left to order a print of Golden Tree on Golden Hill before this art drop closes at midnight EST on Nov 7th, 2024. This print will then be quarantined for a year and we’ll look at it again with fresh eyes in late 2025. If you missed it, our previous post introduced this photograph.

Golden Tree on Golden Hill, by Diana Pappas.

Thank you for reading. If car window syndrome resonates with you, let me know. Until the next time...

---

---

Support

If you enjoy what we do here, it would mean a lot if you can support our newsletter in some way. Consider becoming a paid subscriber or perhaps make a one-off tip via Buy Me A Coffee or better yet, add some art to your space with a print from our permanent collection or an art drop. Even just recommending our newsletter to others, or liking this post, commenting, forwarding it on – it all helps and we appreciate it.