Ute Behrend – Cars and Cows – PhotoBook Journal

Review by Gerhard Clausing •

This fascinating photobook combines images of two seemingly unrelated subjects, old cars and cattle. In recent travels across the United States, Ute Behrend was struck by the ubiquitous presence of these two elements throughout the landscape. As we involve ourselves in the contents and juxtapositions found in this project, we detect a deeper significance on several levels. These are not just vast standard American landscapes with some appealing elements in them, but also have a deeper meaning, giving us close-up views about American culture, past and present.

We get some hints from the two quotes at the beginning of the book regarding a special love of the automobile as well as the about the difficulty of accepting the status of other creatures. We are reminded of the fact that both vehicles and cattle have always been important in American culture as well as for those who emulate it. Both huge cars and huge cattle as particular objects of desire have also been substantial contributors to environmental damage, and we are now reaping the results with unpredictable weather phenomena.

The old vehicles shown in the photographs, to which Germans have given the oblique loanword Oldtimers, because of their relatively large size also used to be known as Straßenkreuzer (road cruisers). They are all from a former time in which, when new, they were seen as special luxurious standards of some kind of beauty. The cattle or “cows” look at us with devoted eyes, equally appealing, and almost seem to be saying, “Even though we are also in your possession, do you really have to eat so much meat and cheese and drink so much milk?”

The images were taken in our present time, but they definitely make us think about the past. They are relics from a former time of a carefree devotion to size and quantity (large cars, lots of meat and dairy products), not hampered by environmental concerns. We can’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia as well, a feeling and wish for a time in which things seemed simpler. And then we discover Ute Behrend’s additional pictures which show a larger context: trucks and portable toilets that support both vehicular traffic and the transportation of larger amounts of agricultural merchandise, and we get the idea that these images are triggers for some heavy thinking.

This photobook is very pleasant as a physical object. The layout is varied, the color images are printed beautifully and are juxtaposed in an imaginative fashion. There is no doubt that both the cars and the cattle have a certain beauty: the newer or younger they are, the more appealing they seem to be. The editing and layout keep us interested from beginning to end, the essay by the author and the quotes at the beginning of the book make us think about the larger purpose and context.

An impactful photobook, highly recommended, also as an example of how subjects in photographs can be used to imply universal meanings regarding cultural and societal preferences and history. Much food for thought about how to conduct our daily lives is transmitted by this project (pardon the pun). The “American dream,” as described and visualized by Behrend, is definitely a work in progress, and this photobook is a valuable contribution toward possible reassessments.

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Gerhard Clausing, PhotoBook Journal Editor, is an author and artist from Southern California. Weather permitting, he also has been known to sequester himself in the Franconian countryside.

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Ute Behrend – Cars and Cows

Photographer: Ute Behrend (born in Berlin; lives in Cologne (Köln), Germany)

Texts: Ute Behrend; Olga Tokarczuk and Charles Darwin quotes

Languages: German and English

Design and Translation: Florian v. Wissel, hoop-de-la design, Cologne

Hardbound with debossed simulated-fabric cover; 88 paginated pages; 7.25 x 9.75 inches (18.6 x 24.7 cm); printed in Latvia by Livonia Print, Riga; first edition of 500

ISBN 978-3-948059-07-1

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.