I love classic cars and film cameras, so I jumped at the chance of photographing a Citroën 2CV with my Mamiya RB67 vintage film camera. See my Citroën 2CV photos in this article.
It all started when I was out walking the dogs and saw a beautiful Citroën 2CV parked by the side of the road. The owner was standing nearby. In my best Spanish (well, I do try), I commented about the beautiful condition of the car and that I would love to take some photos of it with one of my vintage cameras. We agreed it would be appropriate to photograph an old car with an old film camera. The owner readily volunteered to meet me the following evening so I could take some photos of his Citroën 2CV. So we agreed on a time and place.
The Citroën 2CV
I am not a Citroën expert, but according to Wikipedia, the 2CV is a low-cost car produced by the French brand Citroën from 1948 to 1990. According to the owner, his model is from 1981.
In French, the 2 CV stands for deux chevaux vapeur, literally “two horsepower”, which refers to the car’s power output.
The car was built and designed for rural France. The designer defined the essential characteristics as:
- four seats
- being able to load 50 kg of luggage
- two fiscal HP
- front-wheel-drive
- a maximum speed of 60 km / h
- 3-speed gearbox
- consumption of 3 l / 100 km
- a suspension that would allow crossing a ploughed field with a basket of eggs without breaking
I love the last one!
The photos
The following evening I set off with my Mamiya RB67, 90mm and 180mm lenses, a tripod and a roll of Ilford FP4. By 8:30 pm, everything was set up, and I was ready to start shooting. The location was in the olive groves (well, this is Andalucia), and the evening sun was low in the sky, lighting up and accentuating the car’s curves, but without casting any harsh shadows.
I shot the following Citroen 2CV photos. Click on any photo to see a larger version and open the viewer.
