"As a symbol of the American dream and the related rise of the middle class in the 20th Century, the car is omnipresent in photography since the 1950s. It serves as means of transport in the chaos of busy roads as well as in the vastness and emptiness of the landscape," wrote the curators Esther Woerdehoff and Mirjam Cavegn in the introduction notes to their exhibition ‘Drive In’, on display until 2 May at the Bildhalle in Kilchberg, near Zurich. At the same time, certain photographs are said to depict the automobile as something more than just a machine: “A retreat, a place of intimacy in which you can withdraw from public life, where people speak, eat, sleep and love each other."

Photos: Bildhalle Kilchberg