Jacqueline Hassink: Car Girls: The Travel Edition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1597111066 ISBN 13: 9781597111065

Publisher: Aperture, 2009

It remains to be seen whether the practice of using female models to embody the corporate identities of international auto companies was in fact a final spasm of extravagance from an industry now in crisis. Thankfully, Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink's Car Girls is a subversively fun, conceptually sharp and smartly designed document of the spectacle. A body of work that has taken more than five years to complete, Car Girls captures seven car shows in cities on three different continents. Each site was chosen by Hassink to reflect different cultural values regarding ideal images of women and beauty. By highlighting the association between gender, sexuality, power and commodification, Hassink heightens the surreality of the show, revealing what she identifies as "a moment of performance in which the women became more like a doll or a tool instead of an individual." Earlier this year, a 1,500-copy limited edition of Car Girls was published. This second, "travel-sized" edition of Hassink's instant classic has been created to satisfy popular demand, and was, like the first edition, exquisitely designed by Irma Boom.
Jacqueline Hassink, born in Enschede, the Netherlands in 1966, has published extensively, most recently The Power Book (2007) and Domains of Influence (2008). Her photographs are in the collections of the Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among other institutions. She is represented by Cohen Amador Gallery, New York.

About the Author:

Jacqueline Hassink's books include The Table of Power (1996), Mindscapes (2003), The Power Book (2007), and Tables of Power Vol. II (2011). Her photographs have been shown worldwide, and are in the collections of the Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among other institutions. A visiting professor in the postgraduate photography program at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, and the Visual and Environmental Studies program at Harvard, she is represented by Benrubi Gallery, New York.

Review:

"Jacqueline Hassink specialises in surveys, but what makes her projects stand out is their sly and witty intelligence." -- Diane Smyth --The British Journal of Photography

"...Car Girls could well chronicle the last days of the phenomenon that is the big-budget, wildly extravagant car show." --Metro North West

"The photographer plays with the market; the book follows the rules of the market and at the same time counteracts it. Concept and documentation come together in a relationship that benefits both." --Foam: International Photography Magazine

"...car companies routinely employ young women to lounge over bonnets, stroke dashboards and demonstrate reclining seats. Dutch artist Hassink catches snapshots of these girls off-guard, creating a sideways look at auto erotica." --Esquire (UK)