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PHOTOS: Your car has a lot to say about who you are

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PHOTOS: Your car has a lot to say about who you are

Abdul’s vehicle promotes his work as a carpet repair man in Mumbai, India.

Martin Roemers


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Martin Roemers

Homo Mobilis is not just a photography book about cool cars.

The phrase is Latin for “mobile human.” This project by Dutch photographer Martin Roemers depicts all kinds of vehicles: cars the likes of which you’ve probably never seen before, including one with a garden sprouting from its roof, along with animal-drawn transport and bicycles.

And Roemers is not just looking for visual details. He uses vehicles as a vehicle for philosophical questions: How do our methods of transportation represent our identities, reflect global inequalities and illustrate the changing nature of mobility as we drive forward in the 21st century.

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Roemers spent nearly five years on this project, visiting eight countries in four continents and photographing around 200 cars and other vehicles. 160 of these found their way into the book. He identifies the owners by first name only.

In an interview over a zoom call from his home in the Netherlands, he shares his thoughts on the project with NPR — his ninth book of photography. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about the car you chose for the cover of the book.

In 2019, on a trip to Mumbai, India, my wife and I passed by a carpet shop as we made our way from our hotel to a café for breakfast. In front of this shop was an old black car. We often forget how cars aren’t just to get us from point A to point B. In many countries like India and China, they’re precious real-estate space. This particular car was riveting, because it was more than a car. It was a statement, like a billboard. It had “Afghan Carpets” emblazoned on it, advertising the store. It made me think about the many ingenious ways in which people used their vehicles.

I strongly believe that the spirit of the car reflects that of its owner or its driver. It says something about the culture they come from, their world view, identity and even about society itself.

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Suresh, a climate activist, believes all cars should have rooftop gardens to counteract pollution. He lives in Tata Bengaluru, India.

Suresh, a climate activist, believes all cars should have rooftop gardens to counteract pollution. He lives in Bengaluru, India.

Martin Roemers


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Can you give us an example of what you mean?

In Bangalore [now called Bengaluru], I saw a car parked on the street. It had a little garden on its roof. It was filled with sprouting grass and wild plants. When we located the owner, we learnt that he was a lawyer, but he was also a climate activist, who believed that people should reduce their carbon footprint. So he wanted to convey that message through his car. He told me you can grow plants on any kind of vehicle and that he waters his “garden” everyday!

What inspired the idea?  

This particular project explores the relationship between vehicles and their owners.

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The idea for the book came to me in 2015, when I was working on a project called Metropolis — documenting life in the world’s largest cities. My aim was to capture the energy and life in bustling urban environments.

I saw cars everywhere, including some truly unusual vehicles I’d never seen before. They were an integral part of an urban environment, but I wondered, if I isolated them, plucked them off of the roads so that you could focus solely on the vehicle as an object, what stories would that tell?

That must have required extensive preparation.

There was a lot to organize. I needed permission from the car owners to be able to photograph their vehicles in a studio-like setting. We asked the owners to bring their cars to the spot we picked, and [we] rented [a] van to lug around the 12-meter-long steel poles over which we could hang the white backdrop. And we needed people to help set this all up.

Why was this style of photography important to you? 

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In its natural setting — on a road with traffic — the background can be chaotic. When you place the car against a white backdrop, there are no distractions. You can focus solely on the vehicle and the people who own it.

Which countries did the project cover?

I included Germany, because it’s the biggest car producer in Europe. The Netherlands, because that’s home for me. I chose Senegal, because like other West African countries, they import a lot of old cars from Europe — cars that wouldn’t pass inspection there anymore but are now on the streets. Senegal has a growing middle-class as well, and that is represented in the sheer diversity of cars you see on the roads.

Mor drives this minibus in Segeul Thioune, Senegal.

Mor drives this minibus in Séguel Thioune, Senegal.

Martin Roemers


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Martin Roemers

I loved the shot of the newspaper vendor [and the bicycle he uses to sell papers] in Senegal. What’s his story?

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He’s really amazing! He’s an artist and you can tell, because he’s really making a fashion statement. He also has to make a living — and so that’s where the newspaper cart hitched to a bicycle comes in. In Senegal, especially in urban areas like Dakar, newspapers are often sold by street vendors who may use small, mobile kiosks, stands, or simply carry them by hand to offer to drivers and pedestrians.

Mbaye, standing by his bicycle, is an artist and newspaper vendor in Ngaparou, Senegal.

Mbaye, standing by his bicycle, is an artist and newspaper vendor in Ngaparou, Senegal.

Martin Roemers


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Martin Roemers

You also photographed in North America.

I spent a lot of time in the U.S., especially in Los Angeles. There are people from the unhoused [homeless] community for whom the car doubles up as a home. These are people from all walks of life. I met an artist who lives in a camper van, an immigrant from Mexico, a retired construction worker who was living in his car for three years.

Juan, an immigrant from Mexico, lives in a camper in Santa Monica, California.

Juan, an immigrant from Mexico, lives in a camper in Santa Monica, Calif.

Martin Roemers

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There are a couple of unusual images that you took in China of men on motorized cargo bikes — they look like tricycles that are hitched to carriers and piled high with stuff. Can you tell me about those vehicles and their owners?

Qinfang and grandson in a Fuju electric vehicle, Shanghai, China.

Qinfang and grandson in a Fuju electric vehicle, Shanghai, China.

Martin Roemers


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Martin Roemers

Those are electrical vehicles by the way. China is much more advanced in terms of EVs and much further along in electrification than any other part of the world. And these were vehicles I’d never seen before. They’re both the same type of vehicle, but I was struck by how they were used for very different purposes. In one, we see a guy selling children’s toys on a street in a park. It looked lovely — so full of color and life. And in a stark contrast, in the second image, another man uses the same kind of vehicle, but this time, it’s piled high with all kinds of recycling junk.

It reminds me of how vehicles can often be ingenuously repurposed — like Sunny, a chicken vendor in the city of Nashik, Maharashtra [a western Indian state], who transformed his auto into a cage-holding mobile market stand. If someone wants a chicken, he will slaughter it afresh right there.

Sunny, uses his vehicle to earn money as a chicken vendor. He lives in Bajaj Nashik, Maharashtra, India.

Sunny’s vehicle enables him to earn money as a chicken vendor. He lives in Bajaj Nashik, Maharashtra, India.

Martin Roemers

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In China, you’ve taken images of electric autos and their drivers.  

Yes, I found them interesting. These taxi drivers cannot afford big cars. They use these inexpensive vehicles that were originally designed for people with disabilities and for wheelchair users, but today, anyone can hop on. It’s interesting how vehicles adapt to social and economic needs.

You mention how cars are often associated with new beginnings and spirituality in some parts of the world.

It struck me how cars are tied to sentiment and spirituality, especially in India.

I spent some time at a BMW dealership in Bengaluru. The car salesman told me that some clients hire a priest to do pujas [Hindu prayers that involve chanting] right in the showroom, when the client comes to pick up a new car. It’s not something I’ve seen anywhere else in the world. In China, when you pick up a new car, it can be decked out in flowers. To celebrate a new car is like a rite of passage.

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The priest Nagabushna chants prayers to protect a new car from misfortune and accidents, in Bengaluru, India.

The priest Nagabushna chants prayers to protect a new car from misfortune and accidents in Bengaluru, India.

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You have pictures of big families lining up in front of their cars in India.

Yes, I like to portray the human element in car portraits. I’ve photographed a family of four, and another with six members along with their cars. In one picture, there are 12 people. To me, I definitely felt that cars in this context represented a sense of community, of family bonding. Sometimes, it’s about friendship too. When I was taking a picture of a truck and its driver in Malegoan in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, I spotted some kids laughing and returning home from school on bicycles. They agreed to be photographed alongside the truck — I invited them to join because they add another layer of mobility to the portrait.

You have photographed the hand-pulled carts, many of which are banned in some Indian cities.

Dinu pulls a rickshaw in Kolkata, India.

Dinu pulls a rickshaw in Kolkata, India

Martin Roemers

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I noticed it the last time I was in Kolkata in 2008. There were many more of these hand-pulled rickshaws and now there are less. The city wanted to get rid of it, it was controversial, a relic from colonial times. It also represented India’s caste system — the people who pulled these carts to make a living were from a lower caste, but the people they ferried around were from a higher caste. It made me think about how these systems resist change. And that says something about society. That’s why I focused on these vehicles. To me, it represented a unique part of the city’s heritage and a livelihood for many, though they are gradually being phased out for modern alternatives like auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws.

And there are plenty of modern cars, too.

I photographed students at a university in the Netherlands who had developed a hydrogen car. We may have invented the wheel, but I wanted my book to show how transport is constantly evolving — it’s rich, layered with culture and meaning — an entire spectrum.

The book concludes with images of scrapped vehicles — why was it important to depict the end of life of a car?

Shredded cars in the Netherlands.

Shredded cars in the Netherlands.

Martin Roemers

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A car can be a big deal for some people. It can play a huge role in their lives, it can mean a lot to them personally and culturally, but at the end of the day, in spite of its significance, I wanted to show how it’s just a hunk of metal.

Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t

Your turn: Readers! Is there a vehicle in your life, present or past, with a meaningful connection to your place in the world, to your identity? Send a photo and your story to globalhealth@npr.org and we may use it in a follow-up post.

Lifestyle

How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Drew Michael Scott (a.k.a. Lone Fox)

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Drew Michael Scott (a.k.a. Lone Fox)

To his millions of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok followers, 30-year-old designer and content creator Drew Michael Scott (a.k.a Lone Fox) is best known for his easy-to-follow DIY transformations, from updating his 1929 Spanish duplex and offering rental tips to surprising his mom with a living room makeover.

Now, Scott has taken on a new project that isn’t online. This week, he opened Lone Fox Los Angeles, a 7,000-square-foot bricks-and-mortar home store on La Brea Avenue in Mid-City that will have about 2,500 square feet of retail space across two floors.

Sunday Funday infobox logo with colorful spot illustrations

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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“I source every single item,” Scott said, as he gave a tour of the elegant showroom filled with vintage furniture and modern accessories including glassware, pillows, lighting and small gifts.

Scott started selling vintage furniture online about 2½ years ago after his viewers kept asking him about the pieces he used. “I would always use thrifted finds and flea market things in my makeovers, and people would always ask me, ‘Can you sell what you’re using?’” he said.

Fans can now get a taste of his impeccable style in person. Curious about where he finds his vintage pieces? On a typical Sunday in L.A., Scott visits one or two flea markets. Want to know which ones? Keep reading.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

8 a.m.: Avoid anxiety by posting content

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I am a workaholic. But I do that to myself. In the past, I was an anxious person, and that stemmed from having too much free time. So I like filling my day. I have been doing social media for 15 years, and Sundays are my primary day for posting content. I wake up around 8 or 9 a.m. and am excited to post my content, which I always have ready to go. Over time, I noticed it felt like a nice day for people to look at social media because they had more free time, and I found that my views did better on Sunday.

9 a.m.: Coffee and croissants at a minimalist coffee shop

I love the coffee shop Laveta Coffee near downtown [L.A.] on Glendale Boulevard, which is only 16 minutes from my house. It’s a chill coffee shop where croissants are made to order. They also have cinnamon-sugar croissant doughnuts that are really good. I always get the Andante, a cold brew with maple syrup, salted sweet cream foam, cacao powder and pink salt. It is the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life. It’s my go-to, and I love that place.

10 a.m.: Flea market shopping in Long Beach or Pasadena

Sundays are for flea markets, and I take advantage of that. I personally source all my vintage pieces, so I try to visit flea markets every week. I bring a wagon to carry all my finds and really enjoy hunting for treasures. I try to go early and can always find art or furniture to rework and give new life. My favorite spot is the Long Beach Flea Market.

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Another great option is the Pasadena City College Flea Market. It’s especially nice on hot days because about 70% of it is in a shaded parking garage. Sometimes I’ll find a large piece of furniture. When that happens, I use Lugg, which works like Uber. It’s perfect for things like sideboards and usually costs about $100.

Noon: Hunt for treasures at a sprawling antique mart

I also spend a lot of time at the Mart Collective in Venice, where I have a booth. I love finding new pieces there and checking out the different vendors. The selection is so interesting. It feels more like a museum than a typical antique mall, and I always discover something new. Two booths I really like are West End Vintage, which has unique furniture that looks like it’s from a mountain home, and a French booth near the checkout stand that has amazing French oil paintings.

1:30 p.m.: Stop by Lone Fox Los Angeles

After shopping, I’ll drop off my vintage finds from the flea market and check in at Lone Fox Los Angeles. I don’t plan to be there all the time, but I want to be around the first few weeks it’s open to spot any issues.

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2 p.m.: Walk the dog over to Thai lunch

After visiting the shop, I’ll walk my dog over to Her Thai in Mid-City to pick up lunch. I love their pad Thai and Thai iced tea, and I usually get my order to go and bring it home. The Thai tea is especially good. Her Thai is run by the same people who own Met Her at a Bar and Met Him at a Bar, and they are all great.

4 p.m.: Indulge in an afternoon bath

I love taking a bath during the day, even though it feels a bit unusual. I only get the chance on Sundays. I don’t really use bath time to relax, but I do find it sparks my creativity. When I’m in the bath, I come up with ideas for scripts or plan out my work for the week. It might not be the typical way people use their bath time, but it’s something I’ve always enjoyed. My mind is usually focused on work, so that’s where my thoughts go. While I’m in the tub, I like using Cyklar products. Their vitamin C body oils smell great, and adding them to my bath makes me feel productive.

7 p.m.: Enjoy some homemade pasta at a cozy neighborhood cafe

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Then I’d have dinner at Met Him at a Bar, my favorite spot. I really like the restaurant’s vibe. They offer both indoor and outdoor seating, and it reminds me of a New York street corner. The restaurant serves Italian food and makes its pasta from scratch. Their Brussels sprout appetizer with balsamic glaze is amazing. The cocktails are great too. Since it’s just a few blocks from my house, I can walk there if I want to have a drink.

10 p.m.: Content planning while watching true crime documentaries

I love watching TV from bed. On Sunday nights, I usually plan content for the week and check what’s trending. I try to relax and come up with new ideas. I’m really into crime documentaries, which are very different from the content I make at home. I like how real they are, even if they aren’t uplifting. I can work on my phone and look up when something interesting happens. I also enjoy YouTube videos about home content, Mr. Kate, how things are made and soothing ASMR reels. It’s my guilty pleasure and helps me unwind.

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George Saunders thinks ambition gets a bad rap : Wild Card with Rachel Martin

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George Saunders thinks ambition gets a bad rap : Wild Card with Rachel Martin

A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: George Saunders is considered one of the master storytellers of our time. He uses humor and empathy to draw readers into characters and situations that stick deeply in the imagination.

He also seems like a guy totally preoccupied with the liminal space between the living and the dead. And I dig this because I am also preoccupied with this in-between-space. It was the setting for his best selling book “Lincoln in the Bardo” and of his newest novel, “Vigil.”

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L.A. Affairs: I told my husband that something had to change. I just didn’t know what would come next

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L.A. Affairs: I told my husband that something had to change. I just didn’t know what would come next

As he rolled up in front of my Van Nuys duplex, his teal Ford Tempo shimmering in the speckled fall sun, a wave of first-date excitement flooded my system.

Leaning across the center console, he flung open the passenger door.

“Sorry,” he said brightly, “I threw up in that seat on the 405 yesterday, but I think I mostly cleaned it up.”

I paused, looked at the seat and then back at his hopeful, earnest face.

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“I ate vitamins on an empty stomach then sat in traffic,” he said with a shrug.

Well, I thought, at least it was just partially digested vitamins and not a carne asada burrito. It could be worse.

Deciding to be the cool girl, I slid into the not-quite-clean seat and took a deep breath.

Brian was 6 feet 4 and a moppy-haired brunette musician with magnetic stage presence. We’d met through a mutual friend from his band, a guy who made me laugh by drawing inappropriate images on my spiral notebooks in my theater classes at Cal State Northridge.

The week before, I’d watched them play a show in Calabasas and felt something shift. Onstage, Brian closed his eyes when he sang, swaying slightly offbeat as his wild waves caught the light. I was smitten.

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Our first date unfolded on a stylish vintage couch in a cafe rumored to have once belonged to someone from punk-rock band NOFX. We sipped tea. This man had never had a sip of alcohol in his life, by choice, which felt both bizarre and wildly exotic to me at the time. I worried the absence of cocktails might make the night awkward. Instead, we talked for hours, our words tumbling over each other like we’d been rehearsing for years.

Within six months, he’d moved into my apartment. From there, we leapfrogged to Venice, then Marina del Rey and finally to Mar Vista, where we bought our second home and planted ourselves like people who understood picket fences. Two extraordinary children later, we had built something that looked, from the outside, like a Hallmark movie with much better music. I would stand in our kitchen at dusk, the marine layer settling in, peaceful as I loaded the dishwasher in a life I hadn’t necessarily seen for myself.

Then life, because it always does, began to press.

In 2019, my mother-in-law suffered a stroke and moved into our home while she recovered. I love her deeply and was grateful we could care for her. However. Caregiving inside a tiny West L.A. “bungalow” (as my MIL kindly referred to it) magnified everything from love to exhaustion. We survived it, yet hadn’t fully exhaled when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived like a cosmic reminder of how life loves a dramatic arc.

Suddenly, we were always home. Always in each other’s line of sight, always negotiating space that didn’t exist. I would often escape to our tiny yard for another DIY project, clutching coffee or whiskey like a flotation device and internally screaming in his direction: “Why are you always here?”

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My chronic illness flared, and fear hovered over me like smog. Both sets of our parents were aging rapidly and reminding us of our own mortality. Grief layered itself over everything, but we kept the children steady and the house functioning. We kept showing up as best we could.

Yet somewhere along the way, large pieces of ourselves went missing.

In 2023, I fled to Mexico City with a friend. In photographs from that week, I barely recognize the woman staring back at me. She was heavy, pale; her eyes dulled and vacant. I realized I had become a highly efficient machine for other people’s needs and had lost track of my own.

Months later, on a routine mental health walk near the Mar Vista park, I heard a podcast clip that stopped me in my tracks. “Life is a melting ice cube,” Mel Robbins said casually.

I physically froze on the sidewalk.

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A melting ice cube.

Every time I passed that corner I thought about it, how this life was dripping away whether we were awake inside it or not.

That night I told Brian something had to change. I didn’t know what it meant. I just knew I could not continue living a version of life that felt like survival instead of participation.

As the friend he has always been, he listened.

Over the next year, we experimented. We tried reshaping our marriage into something more expansive. We tried an open relationship. We tried to rediscover the spark that had once felt effortless. What we discovered instead was that the truest thing between us had always been friendship.

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So we separated.

Here’s the part people don’t expect to hear: It didn’t destroy us.

Somehow, without the pressure of being everything to each other, we became better. We are kinder and more honest. We parent as a team who spends holidays together and we will head to Coachella soon to complain about the bus lines amid total exhaustion yet again.

I turned 50 in the middle of the unraveling, sandwiched somewhere in the chaos of a second painful surgery and my mother’s death. To mark the end of a massive season in my life, I went to Spain for two months. I walked unfamiliar streets with music carrying me on its wings, ate dinner at 10 p.m. and remembered who I was when no one needed me to be anything in particular.

I came home a different person.

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Now, Brian and I date other people. We talk on the phone most days about the kids, life and whatever absurd situation the world has thrown at us. We take it day by day, week by week, like adults who have finally accepted that certainty is an illusion.

Someone recently called our story “so L.A.”

I smiled.

Los Angeles has always been a city of reinvention, of artists and dreamers, and of people brave enough to admit when something needs to evolve. This city taught me how to chase a musician in a teal Ford Tempo. It also taught me how to build a family and how to let go without burning everything down.

Love does not always look the way we expect. Sometimes it transforms and sometimes it softens into something steadier and less cinematic.

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Evolution is not failure; it is movement, and movement (even when it hurts) is proof you are still alive inside your life.

In Los Angeles of all places, I know how to begin again.

The author is a Los Angeles–based novelist and essayist. She writes about love, reinvention and modern relationships. Find her on Instagram: @marykathrynholmes.

L.A. Affairs chronicles the search for romantic love in all its glorious expressions in the L.A. area, and we want to hear your true story. We pay $400 for a published essay. Email LAAffairs@latimes.com. You can find submission guidelines here. You can find past columns here.

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