Bad Driving by Louis Porter

ERM 003
32 pages, 22.5cm x 16cm, hardback, full colour
500 copies, hand numbered and stamped, 100% recycled paper
Publication date: May 2011
Publisher: Erm Books/And Collective
ISBN: 978-0-9751962-5-0

Bad Driving is a new book of photographs by British-born photographer and strict passenger Louis Porter.
That’s right, Porter doesn’t drive. Well, he once attempted it, but things didn’t end so positively. Somewhat perturbed, he began photographing minor accidents, taking a kind of guilty pleasure in the assortment of bingles, dings and bumper scrapes that scarred his adopted hometown of Melbourne.
Bad Driving is a chronicle of such minor automotive mishaps. Adhering to what Porter describes as a broader thread of “very small-scale suburban conflict photography”, these stunningly composed, colour-saturated images prove both humorous and incisive.
Indeed, while bright and playful, there’s also a quietness to these works. No cars are to be seen; the dramatic and the spectacular are off-limits. Rather, Porter records the auxiliary evidence: the bent poles, the twisted fences and the toppled post boxes. We’re left to do the rest.
Bad Driving is printed in a limited edition of 500, hand numbered copies.

BIO
Louis Porter is a British-born photographer and archive artist who has exhibited in the UK, Europe, Canada, China and Australia, including solo shows at the Monash Gallery of Art and Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne. He also enjoys working as an editorial photographer and his photographs have appeared in publications such as Monocle, ADBusters and The Sunday Telegraph. His previous books are 100 Flowers (2009) and Unknown Land (2010). Louis shares a studio in Melbourne with his partner, who is also a photographer.