The first time I saw this series I fell in love.

The idea behind this work by Italian photographer Mario Mencacci Bandini is fascinating.

“A few years ago I was going to Lucca to meet some photographer friends.

I was stopped at a traffic light when I saw a woman smoking in the car to my right.

She had rolled down the window to blow the smoke away and as she did so, her mouth twisted into a strange grimace.

Luckily I had my camera right on the seat next to me, so I was able to quickly snap a photo before the lights turned green again.

I liked the idea: a photo from my car towards another car… so I started observing people in other cars in traffic.

I tried to always be ready to photograph them with a compact camera (I always have one with me) or with my cell phone.

Observing people I also realized how many things they do in their cars, not only driving, but also eating, sleeping, singing, kissing, arguing…

I thought it would be interesting to document this too: a sort of collection of that which, normal or unusual, people do inside cars.

Sometimes it seems like a parallel world to me and it’s fascinating to discover it.”

The work “CAR TO CAR” was published in a volume published by Bandecchi & Vivaldi, with a preface by Richard Bram and texts by Stefano Mirabella, Fabian Schreyer and Umberto Verdoliva.