Belgian Stig de Block has always had a thing for lowriding and hip hop and so, for over four years, the photographer travelled between Antwerp and Los Angeles to immerse himself in the home of the culture. He discovered Sunday Funday and many other weekly car club gatherings in areas such as Compton and Carson where Latin and Black communities come together to show off their lovingly customised, hydro-pumped cars, enjoy barbecues, hang out and support each other. Needless to say, as a young white European guy, he stood out. But he was soon accepted and invited into their world in order to fully appreciate the scene’s cultural and personal expressions. The result is Back to Back: From Backyard to Boulevard, a photo book, documentary film and recently concluded exhibition at Antwerp’s MutantTM Gallery.

“This is my love song dedicated to the low and slow,” says the award-winning photographer, who also shot a story on East LA’s Latinx style for Nataal issue three. “I can vividly remember the first lowrider event I attended in Los Angeles in 2018. For me, all the things that I've been interested in my whole life – LA culture, architecture, cars, and rap music – came together in one place here. People began to explain what it took for them to build their car. And it dawned on me: Lowriders are about more than just aesthetics. It’s social. It’s political. It’s about community, too.”

And so, de Block’s journey began as one person introduced him to the next and each one shared their own stories with him. The resulting richly hued images exude the warmth and confidence of his subjects, as well as capturing the finer details of their work and their lifestyles, from 14k gold rims and glistening paint jobs to perfectly manicured acrylic nails and ornate face tattoos, and from riders hopping in their cars to loved ones holding hands. Accompanied by nods from Estevan Oriol, the local photographer who was one of the first to document LA lowriders in the 1990s, Big Fish, who has been directing lowrider videos for over a decade, and John Bertoldi, founder of the Lowrider Majestics club way back in 1973, the project offers an honest glimpse into this gloriously chrome-covered culture that has now gone global.

“The project represents the process of starting on your first car in your backyard, then bringing it to a body shop, where it will spend months being customised, to when you show it on the boulevard and share its beauty with family and friends,” de Block continues. “To ride on the boulevard is to have a good time, put all the bullshit that divides everyone during the week aside. The boulevard is a place where people from rivalling neighbourhoods can be in the same space and work things out. And it represents an approachable dream of wealth and desire that is in contrast with the middle working-class reality of the everyday. For me, personally, this body of work is about unity and how lowriding is a positive light in their world.”

Back to Back: From Backyard to Boulevard by Stig de Block is published by Hopper & Vrints-Kolsteren. Discover it here