Filmmaker and photographer Joe Stevens has a very interesting and appealing ambition.
His project Vans and the Places Where They Were documents surviving custom vans with a medium that itself is endangered. Since 1996 Stevens has collected hundreds of images of custom and conversion vans on 120mm film.
Stevens explains his goal for the project.
At the same time these vans have been disappearing from our roads – film photography as a visual medium has also begun it’s slow death. Consequently the goal of the project is to one day shoot the last remaining van on the final frame of photographic film in existence. Then the project will be finished.
In 2008 Joe Stevens released the film Made In Queens, a documentery that follows a gang from Trinidad who blast 15,000 watt music from custom homemade stereos mounted on their rusty bmx bikes. The film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and since has become a cult hit, currently touring festivals worldwide. Check out the trailer.