Texas DeLoreans - Shannon

With the gull-wing door suspended in the air, I met Shannon. He is a long-time DeLorean owner with a well-kept 1983 model. These cars had a short production run but the cars seem to be standing the test of time. 

In my journey of capturing the character of Houston on film, I thought it would be great to take portraits of DeLorean owners. The DeLoreans were built in Northern Ireland, but after the company went bust, the remaining parts were eventually brought to Humble, near Houston where the central DMC (unaffiliated to the original company) repair facility is located. Houston is the new home of the DeLorean.

Because of this, there is a cluster of DeLorean owners around the city. During this first session, Shannon told me about the ongoing improvements he is making to the car. With the repair facility close by, and the ease at which you can complete your own repairs and upgrades, the owners are able to keep these cars running and even overcome some of the limitations that killed the sales of the car in the first place - underpowered engines, temperamental doors and lights that quickly drained the battery.

A father and his young son stopped to look at the car in the middle of our portrait session. It seems like a natural instinct to want to be near and touch this iconic vehicle. I am amazed that the car can excite kids born decades after Back to the Future was released.

I took detail shots and no square inch can be mistaken for another car, not even its cousin, the Lotus Esprit. The square headlights, the grid of the tail lights, the wheel hubs. The look of the car grows on you. It is funny that, even though this was my first time with a DeLorean, it felt intimately familiar. 

This was a hybrid photography session where I used a digital Canon 6Dii and a medium format film Hasselblad 500cm.