A Different Kind of Enthusiast
Artist Spotlight: Syd
STORY | WIlliam Shoemaker
Photography | Syd
I first met Syd, the artist behind @yourfriendsyd on Instagram, during the summer of 2023 at Monterey Car Week. By that time, her photography and online persona were already Internet sensations. Her work exhibited an exuberance and creativity that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in automotive media. However, it wasn’t until 2025 that I sat down with Syd to discuss how her passion for photography—and her fascination with Saabs—has catapulted her into becoming one of, if not the, defining figure of Gen-Z car enthusiasm.
Syd grew up in Quincy, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. She exhibited a deep passion for photography from a very young age. As a child, she would arrange her stuffed animals for photo shoots, capturing these scenes with her dad’s 35mm film camera.
This passion for creating scenes led Syd to digital photography, the medium in which she began to pursue editorial and fashion work. It was only after high school, while attending the New England School of Photography, that she would discover a passion for automotive art.
“Nobody in my family was a car person,” Syd recalls. “I didn’t even know what a Saab was until my dad needed to find a car for me to drive back and forth to school. A family friend was selling a 2008 Saab 9-3, so that’s what he brought home.” The Fusion Blue sport sedan started as just a daily driver, but it became the quirky Swedish catalyst for Syd’s automotive passion. “I started researching Saab’s brand history, and all the results were these beautiful ’70s and ’80s rally photos of Stig Blomqvist in the 99 Turbo, Saab 900 literature, and so much more. I ended up going deep down the Saab rabbit hole.”
Saabs weren’t the only artifacts of the 1980s that shaped Syd’s interests. Growing up with hand-me-downs from her parents and siblings, she developed a deep passion for 1980s pop culture and design. Combining her newfound love of Saabs with her appreciation for retro aesthetics, she began exploring Saab’s back catalog. “From the moment I saw them, I was fascinated by the 99 and 900. I was mostly drawn to their shapes, particularly the wedge design of the three-door.” While she began adding European-market Saab parts to her 9-3, Syd set her sights on something older. After diligently saving, she purchased her first 900, a Cherry Red 1985 eight-valve hatchback, marking the next step in her car enthusiasm.
“I have never cared about power figures or speed,” Syd explains. “The cars I like are all aesthetically interesting, or culturally interesting. I love them because of the emotions they evoke, or because of what I can express through a livery.”
Though she initially planned to pursue a career in landscape and editorial photography, the satisfaction of creating automotive images brought Syd to a crossroads in her education. During our conversation, she noted that she didn’t particularly enjoy photographing people. “I’m not exactly a ‘people person’ when it comes to creating a scene—cars are subjects I have confidence in shooting. I understand how to position and light a car in a way I’ve never felt comfortable doing with human subjects.”
Her choice to focus on automotive photography wasn’t immediately embraced by her instructors. “They thought I was just going to go to a parking lot, snap a photo of a car, and turn it in as my assignment.” However, Syd always ensured the human element remained central to her work. “In my editorial work, I wanted my car stories to have a person—or at least an approachable theme—at their center.” Even so, her professors were skeptical. “One teacher I really respected told me, ‘You’re way too talented to throw away your career on cars.’ But I knew my automotive work could be something more meaningful.” In the end, her tenacity and passion prevailed. Syd’s car-centric photography earned her several awards, including Best Portfolio in her graduating class.
Graduating in 2019 meant entering a media landscape marked by uncertainty—and Syd had few automotive connections. “After art school, I still didn’t know anybody in the automotive space,” she recalls. “I went to Barnes & Noble, grabbed every car magazine I could find, and sent handwritten notes with examples of my work to every editor listed.”
Her efforts paid off when Rory Carroll, then an editor at Autoweek, invited her to cover the July 2019 Formula E race in Brooklyn. The story was published in the final print issue of Autoweek. “I had never shot motorsports before; it was crazy and completely new to me, but it was an incredible first gig.”
Since then, Syd has built a portfolio that many seasoned photographers would envy. Her work has appeared in publications such as Jalopnik, Road & Track, Panorama, Roundel, Hagerty, and The Drive. Additionally, she has collaborated with auction houses and manufacturers, including BMW NA and Porsche.
The bridge between photography and physical art has also been a focus of Syd’s career. Her 944 Apple homage art car garnered attention from higher-ups at Porsche AG, leading to multiple commissions. This project inspired her next art car collaboration, a Saab 99 Turbo, with support from FCP Euro, Vredestein Tires, and Mobil 1.
Today, Syd’s much-expanded body of work exhibits refreshing artistry, and her creativity is a rare commodity in the contemporary automotive media landscape. Her background in editorial photography has made her exceptionally curatorial in her artistic choices—her use of color, lighting, composition, and vehicle selection, coupled with her desire to publish these pieces online for all audiences to enjoy.
In her latest project, Affluenza, Syd examines the psychological and social effects of wealth on car enthusiasts. “I’ve met a lot of wealthy people in my life who have very nice cars, very nice houses, and beautiful lives, but they’re all kind of miserable,” she says. “So I wanted to create caricatures that embody these types of people.” Her approach to the project was delightfully simple: “Seven sins, seven colors, seven moods, seven cars.” The result is nothing short of breathtaking. Syd’s affinity for practical effects is on full display in this series. Her choice of props, color, car, posture, and facial expression is masterful, with each element deliberately selected and staged to typify each character, all embodied by Syd herself.
Perhaps the most profound impact of Syd’s work is her ability to connect with a new generation of car enthusiasts. Her unique style speaks to something deeper than just an aesthetically pleasing portrait of a car; rather, her work unlinks us from our expectations about the relationship between human and machine.
Her work represents a breath of fresh air in the automotive space because she doesn’t see the car as the sole focus of her work, but rather as the means of connecting and building a community with enthusiasts in the automotive space who otherwise have been othered. Many self-described ‘car guys’ claim young people aren’t interested in cars anymore. But Syd’s work—and the community around it— proves otherwise.
