©Kathy Shorr, Book Cover of Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

There are numerous artists who are rediscovering work they made decades before, work made before digital cameras and iPhones, and work made when subjects weren’t suspicious of the photographer. Photographer Kathy Shorr has just released a new monograph titled Limousine, published by Lazy Dog  in Milan, Italy, of work created in 1988-1989. She weaves a series of short visual stories of her clients when she drove a limousine, taking us along for the ride with a glass of champagne and the expectation of the night ahead.

Shorr, who grew up in Brooklyn, bought her first car at age 17 and has always loved to drive. The passion dates back to childhood, when still few residents of her neighborhood owned a car. As a girl she was inspired by her grandmother’s resourcefulness: the only member of the family to own and drive a car.

After graduation Shorr found work as a limousine driver, turning the vehicle into a photographic studio on wheels. For nine months she captured a wide variety of passengers headed to weddings, final balls, quinceañeras and other celebrations. The sleek interior of the limousine served as a private space,
allowing passengers from working-class backgrounds to embrace a temporary celebrity status. Shorr’s work thus draws on two distinct genres in the history of photography: the road trip – think Elliott Erwitt’s California Kiss – and the studio portrait. Like families who reached a photographer’s workshop to capture a special occasion, Limousine’s subjects entered the car in their finest clothes to experience a moment of celebration.

As Chris Lezotte notes, although women were often stereotyped as too frail to handle the motorized beast, they have long defied these gender norms, reclaiming the automobile as a source of autonomy. Shorr’s grandmother primarily used her Chevy for family outings, but it also stood as a means of independence. Kathy, on the other hand, as both photographer and driver, relied on the car to offer herself and her passengers the journey of a lifetime.

Shorr states: Limousine is a book of photographs about my short-term job of chauffeur, i.e. nine months of driving a limousine through the boroughs of New York City (primarily Brooklyn) while photographing most of my passengers from late 1988-89. There are two essays written by Jean Dykstra and Chris Lezotte (a historian on women and automobiles).

Limousine was my first documentary after graduating from The School of Visual Arts in 1988. I wanted to find a job that would afford me the opportunity to work and photograph. My first thought was to drive a taxi, but quickly realized that there would be very little time to interact with passengers as they would all be in a hurry. I wanted an intimate setting so that I would be able to engage with people while also giving them the opportunity to feel comfortable with me. A limousine seemed like a perfect choice. I was hired by a company based in Brooklyn and my journey began.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

Kathy Shorr was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her work crosses the borders of documentary, portraiture and street photography. She received her undergraduate degree in photography from The School of Visual Arts and has an MS in Education, earned while working as a New York City Teaching Fellow working in the public schools in crisis. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout the United States and Europe including the celebrated Visa Pour L’Image for photo journalism in Perpignan, France. Her first book SHOT … 101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America was published by powerHouse Books in 2017. In 2022, she received the NYFA grant, the National Press Photographers Bob and Millie Lynn grant for photojournalism and the Miami Dade Cultural Commission grant for public art. She is currently working on the 3rd installment of her trilogy on gun violence in America, SHOT: We the People.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

Tell us about your growing up and what brought you to photography…

I grew up in Brooklyn and Queens with no definitive idea about what I wanted to do. As a teen, a friend had a 35mm camera and I started to play around with it. I bought a Pentax and started to take black and white photos. After a while, I thought I should take a class about photography to learn all that I could. so I enrolled in a night class at The School of Visual Arts. The teacher liked my work, but I was unsure if he was just saying this or if he was sincere. I asked him, point blank to please be honest with me as I was thinking of enrolling in school full time and wanted to be sure that I had potential for the field. (I really liked his class and wanted to continue studying). I was very happy when he told me that he was sincere and thought that I should continue as a full time student. I trusted his opinion as well as my interest in photographing, so I enrolled at SVA full time in 1984.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

A number of artists are revisiting older work, what motivated you to bring this work forward at this time?

I have wanted to do this book since I completed the project in 1989. It was shown at Visa Pour L’image. in 1992 and had been featured in several magazines. About seven years ago, both the NYT and The Guardian ran stories on the project, and I received a lot of positive feedback from people who had seen the articles. I do think now is a perfect time to connect with the work. Things have changed in our society and there is a nostalgia for how life used to be; smoking, big hair, fun times, socializing and no cell phones. There is a real connection between the people who are photographed – no one is in another world viewing a screen; everyone is present. It’s refreshing; what’s old is new. Black & white photography is part of this same type of old is new thinking. Another plus for nostalgia is the dearth of vacuous selfies. I think that now is a perfect time to enjoy the ride.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

How did the book come about?

I had met Riccardo Bello, the Director of Lazy Dog Press and his team in Italy in 2023. I liked the books on photography that they had designed and published and felt that they would appreciate Limousine. I sent them a macquet that I had created on the project and luckily for me, they were interested in making it happen.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

How did your subjects react to you photographing them…as their limo driver?

At the time, there were very few women driving limousines, so I think it was a bit of a shock to have a female driver. After a half hour or so, I would announce to the passengers that I was a photographer doing a project on driving the limousine and would ask if they would be comfortable with my photographing them during our time together. Everyone except for one man said that it would be fine. In the beginning, when people first met me, they acted like I was working for them (which I was as they had hired my services). But a very different dynamic occurred after I asked their permission to photograph. The tables quickly turned and now they acted as if they were working for me! I had quite a bit of latitude to photograph for the remainder of our time together.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

Much of your focus as a photographer has been on gun violence. What draws you to the subject?

At first, I was interested in the survivors of gun violence as they seemed to be considered “lucky” and quickly forgotten. I was curious about them and thought that we might be able to open a dialogue up about this polarizing subject by viewing those who had been shot and survived. I wanted to do a documentary that showed the pervasiveness of shootings in America. It was important for me to not categorize gun violence by types of incidents i.e. random, crime, domestic violence etc. but to look at it all in the same way. Simply as gun violence. I visited 45 American cities and photographed all races, many ethnicities, ages 8-80, from high and low profile shootings as well as gun owners including an NRA member. The project began in 2013 and finished in 2015. The book, SHOT…101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America came out in 2017 published by powerHouse Books.

In 2021, one of the survivors from the book, asked me to please help in in Philadelphia as he knew many women who had lost children to gun violence. SHOT: We the Mothers Philadelphia was created followed in 2023 by SHOT: We the Mothers Miami.

I am beginning work on the third part of this trilogy now in a community that has suffered a school shooting. All these groups of people are part of the collateral damage of gun violence. My goal is to bring all three projects (SHOT: We the People) to Washington DC for a large scale outdoor public art show so that our legislators can look at the faces of people whose lives have been affected by this American tragedy and begin to understand that no one in America is safe from gun violence.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press xx

What is inspiring you lately?

In this time in America, fearless people who have the courage to do the right thing inspire me.

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limousine published by Lazy Dog Press

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limosine published by Lazy Dog Press

©Kathy Shorr, from the book, Limosine published by Lazy Dog Press