Quite a Find — The 2011 Broken Down Heroes Calendar
By Ed Sunkin
11/30/2010
"Broken Down Heroes" — a calendar of black and white images and photography of old abandoned cars — is available from photojournalist Bob Christy.
The second edition of the calendar Broken Down Heros, a collection of photographs of old, abandoned vehicles, is again available from Ohio photojournalist Bob Christy.
The 2011 calendar — with all new (or I guess old) images — also features trivia, old advertising samples and other images of each of the vehicles featured. The calendar is a great gift for your favorite shop owner, automotive instructor, parent, grandparent or any auto enthusiast on your gift-giving list.
About the Artist:
Bob Christy is a photojournalist living and working in northeast Ohio. In the course of his career he has covered three New Hampshire primaries, and has had the opportunity to meet the last four U.S. presidents.
Bob is the coordinator of photography for Kent State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from Kent.
He and his wife Mindy live in a log cabin in Green, OH, with their four cats and a 1953 Willys CJ-3B.
Broken Down Heroes (a name that comes from the Jack Kerouac novel, “On the Road”) is a project that he has been working on since 1998 and currently has well over 110 images of vehicles ranging from a 1918 Willys-Overland to a 1969 VW Bug. 
The images are all shot in black & white using a Hasselblad 500c.
“The first car I shot was a 1939 Ford Deluxe sedan that I happened to stumble on in an alley in Carrollton, OH," he said.
"I was working at the local newspaper in New Philadelphia at the time and was covering the dedication of a playground for a little girl who had been hit by a car. I was running late and parked in an alley near the playground.
"When I got back to my car, I was feeling pretty sad about the little girl. I sat there in my car for a few minutes staring at the ‘39 Ford in front of me and just began to see the beauty of that old car rusting away. Old cars are like time capsules – each one with a beauty all of it’s own.”
“This is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather Kenneth Clark Christy 1907-'80. He’ll never know the greatness of the gift he gave me."
Calendars are $13.99 plus $2.50 shipping. They can be purchased by emailing Jeep3b@gmail.com, or by sending a check or money order to Bob Christy at 4927 Mayfair Road, North Canton, OH 44720.