Raffi Minasian: Automotive Designer, Collector

VR: When did you first become interested in cars?

RM: My earliest memory is being in front of my house, in Southern California. I can’t recall the car specifically, but it pulled up and parked in front of our house. It was a big, black ’50s car. I remember watching it move closer to me. I could see myself in the reflection. And when it parked, I bobbed up and down, watching the fenders ripple my shape. I thought that was just the coolest thing. And then looking at the chrome was like standing in a fun-house window, the way it morphed and shaped me. I was just fascinated by this effect and started thinking, “How does that happen? How does the car change me?” I ran inside and started drawing and, of course, it didn’t look anything like what I had seen, but it just became this kind of obsession to try and reflect ideas out of a shape like that. That was just so intoxicating to me.