Gezelschap in een automobiel c. 1865 - 1900

Laurens Lodewijk Kleijn created this image, titled 'Gezelschap in een automobiel,' using an unspecified process, at an unknown date. In this ghostly tableau, we see a group posed inside an early automobile, likely captured at the turn of the century. What does it mean to consider automobility and the culture of the car with regards to class? Early cars were a preserve of the wealthy, and this image speaks to that privilege, framing it as a new kind of leisure. But let's look closer – whose stories are not being told here? Where are the drivers, the mechanics, the workers who made this technology possible? What about the environmental cost, the pollution that would disproportionately affect marginalized communities? This image invites us to consider the automobile not just as a symbol of freedom, but as an artifact deeply entangled with questions of power, labor, and environmental justice.