1992 Volvo 240 Estate: A Volvo by Night

I found myself driving through Providence back home one night, when I spotted the unmistakable shape of the Volvo 240. Sam and I often reference photographer Langdon's Cars of New York City collection from the 1970s in our own blog, as his work is very influential on us. 

Clay photographed cars in urban scenes, capturing them in a very true, raw form. Seeing this Volvo at night among the classic New England architecture made me think of that series, and inspired by Clay's work, I took the opportunity to photograph this old Volvo, street parked in Downtown, Providence. 

There's truly something special about seeing an old car at night, especially in the city. The combination of the storefront lighting, the historic architecture, and cool vehicle make for a very urban aesthetic. Not to mention the Providence Performing Arts Center marquee in the background in the photos below made for a great scene as well. 

I'm usually very skeptical when it comes to photographing night time scenes. My iPhone camera, which I use to photograph almost everything on this site as well as my main car blog, is sometimes unreliable when it comes to night photography. However, not to sound too conceited, but I'm very impressed with how these photos came out.

If you reference some of the early entries from 2020 and 2021, you'll see what I mean by the quality being rather sub par at night. Usually the photos are grainy and distorted, making the subject tough to distinguish. Anyways, I was very overjoyed to have the opportunity to photograph an old car at night in the city.  Nonetheless have the photos come out good for that matter.