Losing Eldorado

"Losing Eldorado" El Dorado the mythical city of Gold sort by the Conquistadors. On July 4th, 2002, my brother and I touched down in the USA in search of our own version of El Dorado and to find the elusive soul of America. Instead of the promise of ubiquitous gold and a religious epiphany, the prize we sort was great music but was the paradise we sort already lost?

One thing we did know was that to complete our journey we needed a car but this initially proved difficult. Until we met our saviour, this ’82 Cadillac Eldorado, the last in a long lineage of dream cars. We found the car via an Autotrader Ad, but we soon dubbed the car Rufus and then took off on an epic road trip deep into the American South and to Texas where this photo was taken.

This photo is part of a series called ‘Losing Eldorado’, from a road trip my brother Jeremy and I took more than twenty years ago across America in an ’82 Cadillac Eldorado. All the photographs were shot on 35mm film with a manual Centon DF-300, and they have never been shown in public before but will be on display at Karma Sanctum Soho for three months from 22nd March 2023.

In addition to the photographic exhibition, I have published a book called Losing Eldorado - Searching for the Soul of America, which gives context and a backstory to the photographic series.

The exhibition and the book “represent a synthesis of musicology, sociology, urban development, entertainment industry commentary, philosophy, travelogue and a sensitive, often funny, portrait of two brothers coming of age, at the time of the analogue to digital transition, on the open roads of the U.S.A.”. The whole project can be viewed as a love letter to American popular culture, the automobile and the spirit of rock ’n’ roll.

From 22nd March 2023 ‘Losing Eldorado’ will be on display at Karma Sanctum Soho, 20 Warwick St, London W1B 5NF until June 2023.