Flying cars on show

Renaud Marion’s Air Drive, a retro-futuristic photographic series of flying cars, is being exhibited at the MAD Gallery in Geneva. The nine images by the French photographer Renaud Marion take cues from his childhood imaginings, science-fiction films and artists. His vision of futuristic transport with wheel-less cars suspended above the ground come with a twist – while the levitation smacks of sci-fi, the cars are modified classics, including Chevrolets, Mercedes, Jaguars, Aston Martins and Porsches. Online gallery – flying classics Growing up in the 1980s, Marion thought that by the year 2000 everyone would be piloting flying cars, such as the land-speeder from Star Wars or futuristic machines by French artist Moebius. His dream of propelling a floating vehicle has yet to become reality but, in this series of images, the 39-year-old has brought to life “hover” vehicles. “As a child, I imagined the new millennium with flying cars, spaceships, parallel worlds, extra-terrestrials living with us on Earth and time travel,” he says. “We would have been dressed up in space outfits and equipped with laser pistols. These are the dreams of a normal child, I think, I hope.” Motivated by the idea “our dreams of today are the reality of tomorrow,” and his quest to create the flying cars of his boyhood imagination, Marion developed the unique concept for his Air Drive series. At the end of 2012 in Geneva, he shot the first images he would later manipulate into levitating machines. Capturing the idea in his head of what constitutes a “flying car” and making it palpable required a two-step “manufacturing” process. The first step involved finding the subjects of the shoot and identifying locations. The second involved the equipment. “For the first part of the series, I photographed in Geneva. I chose the cars by walking down the street. I looked for cars parked on the side of the road as I wanted to use real-size models instead of miniatures.” Marion chose to shoot classics because they most closely resembled his childhood idea of what flying cars should look like. The first included a Chevrolet El Camino, Mercedes 300 SL Roadster and Jaguar XK120. Finding the environment in which to shoot them meant seeking out spaces devoid of people and recognisable buildings. “I looked for architecture dating from the 1970s – for me, that’s retro-futuristic. The buildings had to be imposing and graphic.” To achieve the look of “flying” cars, Marion applied a digital assembly technique to remove the tyres and wheel wells, and merge cars onto different backgrounds. His photographic anachronisms have garnered a lot of attention when he initially posted them online. Classic car lovers, science-fiction fans and photo and art admirers have suddenly become followers of Renaud Marion.