Like many 14 year-olds, Anthony Schmidt loves cars. Unlike most early teens, and probably adults for that matter, Anthony’s infatuation covers classic models spanning seven times as many years as he has been alive. Seemingly born with a picture-window view into automobile history, Anthony captures his visions in photographs that have mesmerized hundreds of thousands of admirers who follow him on social media.
There is a twist in the story—or two, actually. Newcomers to Anthony’s social media may first be surprised to learn that the cars in the photos are scale models. They may also be surprised to learn that this gifted young photographer was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was seven years old.
Anthony lives in Woodinville, Washington, a suburb about 20 miles northeast of Seattle. He began taking photos of his model cars when he was six, his mother, Ramona Schmidt tells Hemmings. While just a boy having fun with an iPhone and his cars, he inadvertently taught himself the trick of forced-perspective photography.
Depending on camera positioning, a forced-perspective photograph can create the optical illusion of the subject being the same scale as its background, or of the subject being much larger or smaller. With his photos, mostly taken at outdoor locations, Anthony matches the scale of the backdrop to that of his model cars.
“He was amazed at how he could make them look full-sized,” Ramona says. “He’s a natural when it comes to his sense of scale and perspective.”
Intrigued and pleased by what he saw, Anthony kept at it. His skills progressed and, when he was nine, his mother shared some of his photos on social media. The strong reaction prompted her to start Instagram page, which she says quickly grew to 3,000 followers. It recently showed 46,000. Anthony’s TikTok has nearly 600,000 followers, and his Facebook page nearly 200,000. A private Facebook group created for his supporters two years ago, Friends of Anthony Schmidt Photography, has 140,000 members.
The spark
As it does for many car enthusiasts, the spark of an automotive crush came early for Anthony.
“It’s common for people with autism to have a special interest. In his case, it’s cars,” Ramona says of her son. “The first words he ever spoke were the makes and models of cars, and by age three he could name them all. He soon started collecting models.”
It was only a year after his photo hobby began that Anthony received his ASD diagnosis.
“People often ask why we share his diagnosis along with his photography,” Ramona says. “I answer that these photos would not exist if it weren’t for his autism. It’s what gives Anthony his hyper focus and attention to details. If we didn’t share his diagnosis, it would be extremely dismissive to the hidden talents that sometimes come along with autism.”
Anthony, his mother explains, also shows a photographic memory for real cars.
“As a three year-old, we noticed it was not just the car insignias he was reading, but also the shapes of cars. A couple of years ago, a New York detective reached out to us with a photo of a blurry crime scene photo. It had his men stumped for a couple of weeks. Anthony was able to just glance at it and tell us the make, model and year. The crime was solved, and an arrest was made.” (The car was a Mercury Montego from the early 2000s.)
3,000 cars
As Anthony’s photo skills have grown, so has his collection. Today, he has about 3,000 model cars, many of which were gifted by fans. He prefers the classics. In addition to his models, Anthony has already started on a collection of real cars, including a 1957 Ford Custom 300 gifted by a fan, and a 1959 Studebaker Silver Hawk purchased with profits from his calendar sales.
“Anthony loves all cars, but he complains that modern cars lack the style of the past,” Ramona says. “He considers himself a collector, and the more detailed the better, like AutoArt, Danbury Mint, and Franklin Mint. He prefers to shoot 1:24 or 1:18-scale. Anything smaller doesn’t capture the details he needs to make the image look realistic.”
Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint were also the preferred models of Michael Paul Smith, a forced-perspective photographer who gained renown for his photos about a decade ago. His Flickr site had garnered more than 100 million views. Ramona says she and her son only learned about Michael after he died in 2018.
“Anthony was saddened to hear that he had passed away. I am sure if the two of them had met it would have been magical,” Ramona says.
The Artist at Work
When planning photo shoots, Anthony enjoys matching the era of the cars to the background. He appears to have an innate sense of connecting settings to cars, and vice versa.
“I’ve never seen someone so young have such a good understanding of history and what is era-specific,” Ramona says. “Anthony isn’t an avid reader, because he has dyslexia. The way he learns is quite different from what you'd expect, and sometimes I wonder where he learns these things. He was very interested to learn that Henry Ford was also dyslexic. He’s somewhat of a walking encyclopedia when it comes to car-related facts.”
She explains that for Anthony, sometimes the location inspires the shoot, as the Burgermaster drive-through in Bellevue, Washington, recently did.
“He planned it out for months and waited for the weather to be perfect. He brought cars that fit with the theme of when the restaurant opened back in the Fifties. Other times, he will start with the model car, and then we will drive around looking for a location that matches the theme.”
When the rainy, gray weather that blankets western Washington from fall through spring hinders outdoor work, Anthony shoots scenes at home using custom-made dioramas from two Tennessee artists, Philip Crews and Andrew Roderick, among others.
“They enjoy seeing what Anthony comes up with and sometimes donate their time and supplies to make it even more special for him,” Ramona says. “The latest one donated by Andrew is a little workshop complete with pink insulation and every detail you’d see in a real-life garage.”
Young Publisher
Anthony’s social media followers have made one thing very clear: They love his work, want to see more, and are willing to buy it. A Kickstarter campaign raised $45,000 to publish his first book, Small Cars, Big Inspiration, which Ramona says has so far sold more than 3,000 copies. His second book, Shifting Perspectives, is available for presale at AnthonyRyanSchmidt.com.
“So many opportunities have opened up to him,” she says.
Anthony’s first solo art gallery show in Spokane in April lead to an article in People and a shout-out on Twitter from Apple CEO Tim Cook for his creative use of an iPhone. In July, Anthony enjoyed an all-expense-paid trip to Midwest Dream Car Collection in Manhattan, Kansas, where he gave a presentation. Ramona says the Miles Nadal Dare to Dream Automobile Museum in Toronto has extended an invitation to fly the family up to Canada to tour the collection of 140 rare cars.
Family Affair
Anthony loves his vocation, loves to work, and gets a lot of support from family.
“It is hard to keep up with Anthony,” Ramona says. “He takes photos daily and works for hours in his workshop, painting and modifying the cars. He calls me his assistant. I help him with lighting, and together we build the platforms for his photo shoots. I drive him to his locations and help him carry all his props and gear. Some photoshoots can last up to three hours, not including driving time.”
Anthony’s grandmother and Ramona co-manage the young artist’s considerable social media presence and also package and ship his calendars and books.
“Anthony likes to involve himself in every step of the business, and it’s been a great experience for him to learn about how to be an entrepreneur.”
[Editor's Note: This story originally ran August 8, 2022.]
From Your Site Articles
- Do cars in set-in-the-past movies and TV shows pull you out of the ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
