HITCH-HIKERS BY DOUG BIGGERT IS A SUPERBOOK.

THIS COPY EVEN MORE SO.

IT BELONGED (PRESUMABLY) TO BIGGERT AND IT IS ANNOTATED (PRESUMABLY) WITH HIS OWN ANECDOTAL OBSERVATIONS. HOW

UNIQUE CAN YOU GET?! ANOTHER MUSEUMABLE

BOOK FROM IDEA.

Doug drove regularly from Sacramento to San Francisco and gave a lot of lifts to a lot of people. From 1973 onwards, Doug took a photo of each of the hitchers he picked up in any one of the three VW Beetles he owned. When this book was put together, many, many years later in Belgium (2007), he had over 450 portraits.

Doug, who had worked for Tower Records for most of his career, passed away earlier this year, aged 82. Very likely that is his thumb print on the bottom corner of the cover of this very special copy. 
 

The book is SUPER GOOD. The most extraordinary visual record of California's highway hitchers in the 1970s. That's why we were tracking down the book - because it's great. What we didn't expect was to find what is very likely his own copy - almost every page of which is annotated with his memories of the subjects. 
 

"Picked this guy up twice in two years - wearing the same shirt!!"

That black pen written text is noticeably absent from other copies of the book.
 

"Took him with w + w/o shirt!"  The car has seen better days. Not so this hitcher - his future lies ahead of him. 

Not every photograph is annotated. Some are in very great and personal detail - we aren't sharing those here. We are focused, as ever, on IDEA's underlying principle of sharing pictures of people looking cool. 
 

He's looking pretty cool. Twin cassette double denim and a real hard case with it too. 
 

He's a "Cool philosopher". There is a lot more detail in some of the annotated pages - but it's also quite personal: we respect that. 
 

A later picture. 1990 at the Crocker Museum, Sacramento. Doug's notes often reflect his concern for the safety of his passengers: "There were two. Made me nervous, warned them it was a busy exit." 
 

Ok so this one is quite personal ("FAT") but it does give you more info on the process and the in-car photo collection. And it is a fine photograph. 

The book is super charmed. A piece of history. You can buy it on the button below.