Woodbury photographer Carl Weese is running out of time to complete his photo documentary project examining drive-in movie theaters across the country.

Check out this video explaining the project. It’s impossible to resist this guy’s pictures.

He’s looking for contributions so he can head west this summer with his large-format cameras:

It is imperative to make the trip now, this summer, because drive-in theaters are facing their worst threat since the 1970s. The companies that distribute feature films intend to stop distributing, well, film. Everything has to go digital, but conversion to digital projection costs $75,000 to $100,000 per screen. Drive-ins are seasonal businesses—I don’t think I’ve ever met a drive-in owner who didn’t need a day job—so most just don’t have that kind of money. I hope a solution is found, but I’m afraid that by 2013 there may be far fewer working drive-ins than I’ll be able to find this summer.

… My fund-raising goal is designed cover the expenses for this road trip, and expenses related to the fund-raising effort. Some will go for film and processing, but mostly it’s about travel costs. The trip will cover at least 12,000 miles and take at least six weeks. I won’t be racing from one venue to the next. Each theater has to be photographed at the perfect time of day in the right weather, which often means waiting for those conditions.