The daughter of an activist filmmaker, Bedford grew up in Capitol Hill, Washington DC. It’s a way of saying, ‘I'm not going to be discriminated against.’” “Lowriding is not just a fashion statement,” says Bedford. There are now tens of thousands of Mexican Americans – of all genders and backgrounds – involved in the DIY car customisation community, enjoying street shows, cruise nights and community socials. Lowriding has been around since the 1940s, and has become one of LA’s most diverse and prolific subcultures in that time. It was a compelling subject for any photographer, not just because of all the myths that surround the movement. The result was Cruise Night: a new monograph, published by Damiani, exploring the “political, cultural and creative self-expression” of lowrider car customisation.
Between 20, the photographer would attend car shows and events, as well as visiting her subject’s homes, to create a series of revealing, unstaged images. To shake some of these stereotypes, Bedford spent five years embedding herself in LA’s lowrider community.