When the term “looksmaxxing” gained traction not long ago, untold generations finally had a word for the practice of jutting out their chins in an attempt to mask their sagging jawlines. With the ubiquity of cameras and social media’s insistence that we all look amazing all the time, looksmaxxing is almost preemptively defensive behavior at this point. But in Olden Tymes, that wasn’t always the case—especially behind the wheel. Which is precisely why Andrew Bush would strike at that very moment of weakness.

The year was 1989 and photographer Andrew Bush had just moved to Los Angeles. His aesthetic was already established—voyeuristic and technically precise—and his subjects mainly regular people captured in unguarded moments. And in a place like Los Angeles, the most unguarded of moments for most people was when they were driving. That would be his next project, entitled Vector Portraits.

The first step, of course, was figuring out how to get the photos. After undoubtedly much cogitation, Bush came up with the solution: mount a medium format camera to a tripod in the passenger seat of his own car, strap a strobe flash to the outside, and go for a drive around L.A. Which he continued to do from the moment he hit the road with his roving camera car in 1989 to the conclusion of the project in 1997.

Exhibited extensively in solo and group shows from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art to Baden-Baden Germany's Staatliche Kunsthalle, the candidness of the photos no doubt took people aback on first sight—as they still do. But then you encounter Bush's deadpan captions and the whole thing becomes borderline absurdist. For instance:

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Woman waiting to proceed south at Sunset and Highland boulevards, Los Angeles, at approximately 11:59 a.m. one day in February 1997

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That woman is, of course, Angelyne in her trademark Barbie pink Corvette, and not even she's ready to have her photo taken. The takeaway being that while we may in fact be who we most are in our cars, at the same time we’re anonymous drones on the road with everyone else. So if you're behind the wheel, you’d better looksmaxx 100% of the time because you might get papped by Andrew Bush.

The Archives: Andrew Bush [via Musée Magazine]