I’ve been meaning to kick this one off for more than a year now, but I guess with the birth of my Driving Images car photography website, it’s a good time. Dead Metal will be my first real ‘personal project’ as such. I’m a big believer in personal work, but in the past, personal projects have been one offs, helping out organisations and groups I believe in and other subjects.

Sunday was the trigger for me, driving home after a photo shoot, I spotted an amazing collection by the roadside of old Mercedes in varying states of de-composition. I’d noticed before that decaying metal takes on the same characteristics as wood, the grain opening up and slowly rotting away until nature reclaims it and you can literally sink your fingers into it.

This location wasn’t an abandoned workshop, it was actually a working Mercedes specialist, with the cars slowly being canibalised for spares. I’d love to have had more time if the place had been open for business to talk to the owner and hopefully spend time shooting some of the dying hulks. There must have been more than fifty old cars there, from 190E’s through old S-Class and even a G Wagen. I can’t help but think that he’s not popular with his neighbours, but I loved the place and could spend hours there, if only it wasn’t a four hour drive away!