Petrol and Paint

For me Garage signage evokes a bygone era of local industry, craftsmanship, and car culture. Paint and Petrol is a documentary photography project exploring the overlooked language of independent garages the fading signs, weather-worn walls, and hand-painted promises of services long since ceased. These sites speak quietly of another economy, one rooted in grease, grit, and human connection.

By cataloguing the remnants of small garages across Wales, this project will document more than just buildings, it aims to capture the end of an era, the textures of local labour, and the ghosts of a culture where fixing things, rather than replacing them, still mattered.

This project will be shot solely on RAW colour digital files using a vintage Nikon D2X and manual 28mm f3.5 AI lens.