There I was

More about the book

At four years old, Collier Schorr accompanied her father, an automotive photographer, to a racetrack where she met the charismatic drag racer Charlie "Astoria Chas" Snyder, who was working on his dream car, a 67 "Ko-Motion" Corvette. An article with the haunting headline, "While Astoria Chas is doing his thing in Vietnam his friends are racing his L-88," followed. By the time it was published, Snyder had already gone to Vietnam and tragically died on August 27, 1968, shortly after his twenty-first birthday. He never got to drive his car, which his friends raced, setting an AHRA record for its class. This work marks a shift in medium and concept for Schorr. Using her father's images of Snyder and his snapshots from Vietnam, she incorporates professional reportage photos to illustrate Snyder's journey from Queens to Vietnam and back. The drawings contrast with vintage car magazine articles and Schorr's own photographs. This volume, rooted in photography, engages with the medium while challenging its role as a document of the past. It offers a multifaceted exploration of escape, culture, dreams, and mortality, presenting an expressionistic portrait of the dichotomies of late 1960s America amid the turmoil of war.