CarScapes: A New Postcard Series by George Brich

Pioneering photojournalist, George Brich, captured many of the most iconic moments of the 20th century for the Associated Press. Establishing his own unique vision for telling a story, his extensive work made its way into the world’s most esteemed global news publications, including The New York Times, Time Magazine, and U.S. News & World Report.

Now, Brich has resurfaced as an upbeat artist who brings us a prodigious new body of photographic works entitled CarScapes. His new work explores the intersection between the car, the human factor, and the natural and man-made landscape.

We were so very impressed with CarScapes, it’s novelty, and its ability to project love and positivity, we invited Brich to create his very own Youtropolis postcard collection featuring 12 CarScape images. He agreed!

To introduce his collection, we sat down with Brich to discuss his stellar career as a photojournalist and his ongoing evolution as a creative artist who considers himself to be an “observer of the unobserved.”

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Youtropolis: As a photojournalist, I’d say you’ve lived a very privileged life. Not everyone gets to photograph Eleanor Rosevelt, go rafting down the Colorado River with Robert Kennedy and his family, do a photo shoot of Ronald Reagan at his ranch, or photograph Marilyn Monroe’s funeral. What many people perhaps don’t know, is you were also the first photographer on the scene at the notorious SLA shootout in Los Angeles—precisely when the bullets were flying. That moment was history in the making. Caught in that crossfire, how did you balance your need to capture the moment with the need to survive it?

G. Brich: I guess I stayed at a distance and let things unfold before moving into the conflict on my own. I waited to see what would happen next, what the resolution would be.

Youtropolis: Did that event give you pause or deter you from returning to your job as a news photographer?

G. Brich: Not at all. That’s the only thing that I ever had in mind to do. Being a photographer was my life, whether it would take me out on assignments or inspire my own creative vision. My life was photography.

Youtropolis: During that era, the mid-20th century, you chronicled news events that were both significant and historic, including being the only photographer to accompany Nixon on his first flight back to Washington, DC after his resignation. Yet, when you received the George Polk Award in 1973, which is perhaps the most prestigious award any photojournalist can receive, it was for the feel-good, heart-warming moment you captured of a military man being greeted at the airport by his wife and children upon his return from Vietnam. What was it about that moment, that image that earned such a distinguished prize?

G. Brich: Well, I think the fact that the kid in the picture was circling around his father and expressing such joy that he was finally home—instead of it just being another picture of a husband hugging his wife. I think the kid is what made the picture. Little details like that which don’t mean much at first, distinguish the picture from any other photograph you could make at the time. Little surprises like that make a big difference.

Youtropolis: Working in LA’s chic, entertainment capital of the world, you photographed many iconic figures, and the list is long, but not all of your assignments were glitzy or fun. I’m referring to the Charles Manson murders where you were the only news photographer allowed on site at the Tate and La Bianca homes. Can you talk about that grizzly scene and how one begins to tell that story so that people can take it in?

G. Brich: In that grim situation, I just floated along with the scene until things would happen in front of me that made sense to photograph, or could give some sort of a brightness to this story. I would look at the layout of the scene as a way to tell the story and where the events happened.

Youtropolis: How do you tell a story that on the one hand needs to be told, but on the other, you want to shield people from its darkness? And how is it possible to bring light to something like that?

G. Brich: When it’s an assignment where there’s been a horrific tragedy, you do your best to convey the story in a humane way that fulfills the need to help people understand what actually took place, whether it’s about the police work or the criminals themselves.

Youtropolis: We see images every day of hell on earth, whether it’s devastation from hurricanes, untenable wild fires, or unrelenting missile strikes. We seem to be acclimating to the grotesque. Can photojournalism still infuse us with a sense of moral duty that inspires us to action in the way that images of flag-draped coffins coming home from Vietnam once did, or might today’s images just be numbing us?

G. Brich: A barrage of negative images is certainly numbing and can be very overwhelming. I believe it’s sometimes purposefully done to scare the hell out of people, such as the government feeling it’s worthwhile to go to war against someone. A lot of it is propaganda—there’s always a lot of that going on in the world.

Nonetheless, I feel that life is more of a positive experience. So that’s one of the things about my photography—I’m able to reveal the more positive things in life that people sometimes overlook, and I bring that positivity to their attention as a way of saying, “This is something really nice to look at,” instead of just passing it by.

Youtropolis: Looking back at your career, you were recognized early on for your daring use of the 35mm camera, unheard of in LA news rooms where clunky Speed Graphic 4x5 cameras were standard. Your passion for snapping rapid-fire shots of unfolding events not only yielded some stunning and truly surprising photography for the Valley News and Associated Press, but added a novel dimension of photorealism that revolutionized Los Angeles newspaper publishing. Thirty years later, there came a point where you decided to step away from your career and bring forth your creative vision as an artist using photography as your medium.

Talk about your latest body of work, “CarScapes.” It’s so LA and so beautiful. How did this thoughtful work begin, and what most inspired you?

G. Brich: I would take walks around the area or be driving someplace around Los Angeles and realize that one thing we have here are lots of cars in the streets. So I started figuring that the car is part of the landscape here because it represents how Los Angeles operates. It has freeways and parking lots and just people driving around here and there. If you didn’t have cars in Los Angeles you’d be stranded because we’re not like Chicago or New York where people can take subways, buses, or taxis—or walk to almost anywhere they need to be. They can get around without a car, but in LA we use cars like putting on our shoes to go someplace.  

So CarScapes is a blend of my vision as an artist and my vast experience as a photojournalist where I observe the unobserved in life. I like nature and how it interacts with our lives. In Los Angeles, our lives have a lot to do with cars, whether it’s the freeways and interconnected roads, the ability to get gasoline wherever you need it, or tow trucks that come around to help you get going again. Fundamentally, cars are our lifeline, and they represent the landscape of Los Angeles in a lot of ways. So this is how the name CarScapes came up.

Youtropolis: The world needs an infusion of joy right now, and your work seems to fulfill that need in its own unique and colorful way. Somehow, your images convey an aura that all is well with the world. What is it in the expression of your work that has the power to conjure happiness?

G. Brich: Well, while cars are everywhere, it’s their random placement as objects of art within the environment that I find intriguing. I see how people might be washing their cars or I may find them parked in an interesting way or placed near an interesting structure. How they fit into a space is what calls my attention. I’m not interested in promoting things that are of negative value. We deserve better. I think life should be pleasant, and I want my work to reflect that.

Youtropolis: It very much does.

G. Brich: The joy of driving and the joy of being alive is what I like to convey because in my career as a photojournalist there’s been enough negativity—sometimes if it’s not negative, there’s no story. So if you have a beautiful picture in photojournalism, they’re not going to use it, they have no use for it.

Youtropolis: So true. It must bleed to lead because there’s an undeniable part of human nature that’s transfixed by “shock and awe” images. But there’s also that part in us that craves beauty.

G. Brich: Yes, and I think photography records a reality and promotes it. There are good things and there are bad things. I want to avoid the bad things. I try to stay where things are interesting, from where the humane interacts with life. In Los Angeles, those every day interactions often coincide with an automobile and the surrounding landscape. That’s where I sense beauty and wonder.

Youtropolis: To add to that, it seems that much of your work intentionally focuses our attention on those certainties we often take for granted in our life—the tree we walk by every day, the house across the street, and the car the neighbor loves and depends on, which, not surprisingly, takes center stage in your images. We can also say that through your striking use of color, your work reconnects us to the vivacity in life.

G. Brich: Yes, I think people often miss the colorful details that make life interesting, and there’s so much of it out there. I also hope my work brings forth the quiet peacefulness in our day-to-day existence and teaches us how to value that.

Check out Brich's CarScapes Postcard Series here by scrolling down to row 5. The artist also invites you to visit his city, Photography, where he will soon post additional images, including photography from his career as a photojournalist.