The Lowriders: From Detroit to LA and Back

The Lowriders: From Detroit to LA and Back is a 20-year lyrical documentary photography project that delves into the heart of lowrider culture, with Detroit as its center.

The cars that serve as traditional lowriders were originally designed and built in Detroit. They were sent around the world and inspired a number of automotive customization cultures, many of which worked their way back to the Motor City itself.

In Los Angeles, late 1930’s Pachuco culture popularized the low-slung stance that came to be a lowriding social and stylistic statement. In the 1950’s LA innovated hydraulic suspensions, with the ability to adjust the cars’ ride height while still driving. This was a response to law enforcement’s targeted crackdowns, but it became a qualifying modification of lowriders soon thereafter.

Since then lowriding has traveled across time, cultures, and communities developing its own unique characteristics in various locales on its round trip voyage back into the heart of Detroiters where the culture is integrated into the lives of riders and their families.

Lowrider culture prides itself in a hypermasculine presentation, with cars often acting as symbols of dominance and territorialism. However, The Lowriders uplifts a divine character within the culture—community, care, collaboration, and nurturing. Through careful attention to these moments, The Lowriders shows us that the ritualistic nature of lowriding is often not about the product itself, but about relationships, values, and traditions embedded in the process.