A little car in Julien's head

Julien Mélica conceived the "My Little Red Car" photographic concept while decorating his son's room. Since then, this photographer from Mulhouse, now living in Wittenheim, has been photographing children's toy cars and awakening the child within every adult. Last weekend, he exhibited his work at Epoqu'Auto in Lyon, in front of 65,000 visitors.

The "My Little Red Car" concept isn't new, but it's currently experiencing a significant surge in popularity. "It all started when our son was born (Editor's note: Julien lives and works with photographer Lydie Luttenbacher). I was looking for ideas to decorate his room and I thought I'd take a picture of MY car from when I was a kid. The one we all cherish in our minds. Mine was a red Jaguar E-Type." This talented portrait photographer poses the car and takes about a hundred macro shots of his toy to recreate, in a large photograph, a car just a few centimeters long. "That's when I realized something incredible. In the photo, you could see details that weren't visible to the naked eye." Julien then shows us an old 1/43 scale Porsche , battered by a child, which, in a photo measuring one meter by 1.40 meters, reveals a grain of sand in the rear trunk vent. Stunning... and beautifully poetic. "Actually, if a child hasn't played with a car, I'm not interested," Julien explains, supported by Lydie: "What interests us in photography is telling stories, it's about humanity..."

“ My Little Red Car has become a concept that has an incredible effect on people, putting a sparkle in their eyes when they see their childhood car, enlarged in a photo. But using the same principle of sharpening, I've already been asked for photos of cuddly toys, tennis rackets…” The car or motorcycle can be photographed from above, from the side, or from a three-quarter angle. It's the line that determines Julien's shooting angle… “Until now, the concept worked through word of mouth, but I decided to develop it. So we did the Epoqu'Auto show in Lyon last weekend.” The result of the real-world test? “A fantastic reception. People tell me, ‘Your idea is brilliant.’ And what surprised me most is that one out of every two people who came to ask about having a photo taken of a toy car was a woman.” Now I'm going to wait for feedback and orders to decide whether to commit to Rétromobile in Paris in February.” One hint, though: for a “My Little Red Car” print for Christmas, things are starting to get complicated in terms of deadlines… “It's really a huge undertaking to reconstruct the photo,” explains Julien Mélica, who offers unique prints starting at €367 (24 cm x 30 cm) and going up to much more.  For a 1m x 1.40m space. More expensive than a toy car, less expensive than a real car, but childhood memories are priceless...