In an effort to showcase the development of his craft, Sean Klingelhoefer’s most recent personal projects bridge the gap between his advertising work and his daily fine art photos. In both stories a wide variety of cameras were utilised to emphasise his love of film photography and the power of using several formats at once.

The first project is a photo-collage series shot in upstate New York featuring the timeless design of the Citroen SM. The second project captures vintage Mercedes in-situ as they move along the gorgeous streets of Paris. More from both series can be found on the artist’s website.

Brought on to capture the return of the legendary French sports car, the Alpine A110, Sean travelled to Dieppe, France to shoot the cars in the very same factory where skilled workers hand-build them.

Finally, and most recently, Sean found himself in Idaho on 21st August to document the total eclipse of the sun to promote Mitsubishi’s all-new Eclipse Cross crossover SUV.

Sean Klingelhoefer has been living, breathing and photographing cars for more than half of his life. With a career path as unique as his eye, Sean went from mechanic to automotive journalist to commercial photographer and his knowledge and experience with cars allows him to capture them in a way none of his contemporaries can.

His undying respect for light combined with a subtle retouching method creates images that appeal to all generations and demographics. They faithfully showcase the best attributes of the design, but at the core of his work it’s the way each vehicle's unique attitude is conveyed that speaks to “petrol heads”, causing his photographs to stand out.

Selected recent campaigns include shooting Audi’s top-of-the-line R8 V10 sports car on a dry lakebed in Death Valley for Venables Bell & Partners, Volvo’s best-in-class XC90 SUV in Victoria, British Columbia for Grey and Volkswagen’s all-new Golf Alltrack in Santiago and Orsono, Chile for Deutsch.

If you aren’t familiar with Sean Klingelhoefer’s work it won’t take long to recognize that he sees cars in an entirely different manner from most. As a mechanic-turned-photographer he has a unique outlook that strikes a chord with a specific type of creative.  

Some of this idealism can be seen in his recent personal series of a classic Italian sports car seemingly lost in the desert. While some may refer to the images as “fine art”, Sean likes to think the aesthetic more closely resembles a desert mirage or a peyote-induced dreamlike state of bewilderment. The car obviously isn’t the star in this series… or is it?

As a fanatical car enthusiast and Nürburgring expert it came as no surprise that Toyota called on Sean to document the limited “GRMN” edition of their future cult classic GT86 for the “Born on Nürburgring” campaign. Capitalizing on the fast changing weather the ‘Ring is known for he created a series of images that accurately depicts the speed and danger of the famous circuit and emphasized exactly why all modern sports cars are designed to tame the nearly thirteen mile course.

Teaming up with legendary car builder Rod Emory to photograph some of his world-famous “Emory Outlaws” Sean painted these gorgeous silver-clad classics in various rainbow hues created by a variety of experimental tools. This series of images are particularly dark out of necessity to display the full array of the light spectrum and are best viewed at night or in an environment with little ambient lighting to be fully appreciated.

To see more images from these and other series please visit Sean’s website.

2015 ended in a flurry of shoots for Sean Klingelhoefer, including flyaway jobs to Prague for Skoda, Tokyo for Motorhead Magazine and Germany’s famed Nürburgring circuit for Toyota. While the images can't be shown just yet, what we can show is equally as exciting.

Back in September Sean was invited by Porsche to attend the fifth running of Rennsport Reunion, or what the brand bills as “the largest gathering of Porsches on earth!” The setting for the event was Monterey’s beautiful, world-renowned Laguna Seca Raceway. Nearly 60,000 people came from all corners of the globe to see historic Porsche racecars in action.

As a Porsche enthusiast himself, this once-every-four-years gathering is a must-attend event for Sean and the images featured in this Spotlight offer a glimpse into the mind of a truly car and light-obsessed individual. These photos are a small sample of a larger collection of images that will be distributed in book form later this year.

Sean was called back to the streets of San Francisco for Chevrolet’s all-new 2016 Volt. Working with one of his favourite creatives, Sean shot a series of images that encapsulate the Volt lifestyle focusing on sophisticated light play and minimal retouching to give the authentic feel his work is known for.

Sean Klingelhoefer has spent the first half of 2015 doing what he does best - capturing the sculpted form of the automobile and the essence of speed.

“Forever Amazing” is the apt title of the brand campaign for the world’s foremost sports car manufacturer, Porsche. Sean was commissioned to travel to Porsche’s newly opened North American headquarters to create heart-pumping imagery with in-your-face compositions of the entire range of high performance vehicles on-site at Porsche’s recently christened test track.

Sean also spent time in Salinas shooting the world-renowned custom car builder Cole Foster for Australia’s trend-setting magazine Fuel. A full day quickly passed shooting Foster’s workshop and several of his cars resulting in a special edition of the magazine where nearly one-quarter was dedicated solely to Cole’s work.

A bi-coastal shoot for Road & Track had Sean splitting his time between a snow-covered racing circuit in Connecticut and the urban streets of San Francisco showcasing the “insane mode” performance of the all-electric Tesla P85D.

Other recently shot campaigns not featured in this Spotlight include the all-new Nissan Maxima for TBWA\Chiat\Day, the all-new Chevrolet Volt for Commonwealth, and the Lexus F-Sport line of vehicles for Team One.

Sean Klingelhoefer closed out 2014 with strong campaigns for Cadillac’s latest Escalade and Lexus’ all-new NX F-Sport. In addition to his work on the Escalade, Sean was commissioned to shoot a series for Cadillac Magazine on the ELR Luxury Plug-in Hybrid.

The highlight of the holiday season was a personal series about professional rally driver and Internet legend Ken Block and his latest creation – a custom built 845hp Mustang.

The incredible vehicle dubbed the “Hoonicorn” is the star of Block’s latest viral film
Gymkhana 7, which had been viewed over 20 million times at the time of press. The series was subsequently picked up as a special feature in Japan’s popular Motorhead magazine