Clark Winter’s perceptive photographs of cars across the decades—and around the world—revel in nostalgia while revealing the subtleties of our relationship with automobiles, drivers and the things we see along the way.

Since their invention, cars have been one of the driving forces behind America’s constantly changing culture. Not only have they helped shape the country’s sprawling cities and suburban society, but they’ve inspired films (from American Graffiti to The Fast and the Furious) and songs ( from the Beach Boys’ zippy Fun, Fun, Fun to Bruce Springsteen’s anthemic Thunder Road ) and an endless parade of road-trip books. Over the course of half a century, Clark Winter captured images of the car as a symbol of Americana, yes, but more intriguingly, he also found a global spirit in this form of transportation in countries such as Spain, Italy and China.

Winter’s photographs, made in both color and black-and white, are not simply focused on the vehicles but rather on the way people physically relate to cars, turning each image into a stage upon which a drama quietly (and sometimes comically) unfolds between owner, passenger, and passerby. And because these dramas are universal—eating ice cream in the backseat, waiting for a pump at the gas station, stuck in traffic, busted for speeding—Winter’s wide-eyed, often lighthearted pictures invite us to recall and relive our own days of adventure, romance and speed.