AUTOMOTIVE & LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY Apr 2012

Chris Myhill has been very busy in China in recent months working closely with major agencies in both Beijing and Shanghai. Clients include manufactures that he has worked for in Europe such as GM and Lexus, but also local Chinese car companies and markets which he says "makes for an interesting cultural change when dealing with clients and agency staff."

He has also continued to work for existing clients in Italy and the UK. Chris has dovetailed his commercial work with a renewed enthusiasm for his personal work by visiting Canada and the US several times over the past 12 months. This has lead to a pursuit of imagery with an aviation theme and discovering old, abandoned aircraft.

Chris has enjoyed the increased travel over recent months and will shortly be back in Shanghai working around the Grand Prix.

Chris Sisarich is one of freeway's automotive photography specialists. Chris also shoots landscape and people photography.

Chris Sisarich's globally recognised car and landscape work demonstrates his love of shooting with talent. His VW Jetta and Cabriolet campaigns brought the human element to car photography, while his Subaru campaign clarified his lifestyle sensibility.

This Spotlight features Chris' three recent campaigns for VW and Ford, plus his incredible photography of New Zealand landscapes.

Chris is represented by freeway creative management.

Christian Höhn is a Nuremberg and Berlin-based photographer covering architecture, landscape, cars and people.

He is particularly skilled in creating big tableaux, making him a favourite in both the advertising and art markets. His staged images have a highly aesthetic and graphic set-up where nothing is left to chance.

Christian is represented by von Loewenstern Fotografenagentur. 

Christian Lohfink is a high-quality photographer with many years of experience. He works for magazines, agencies and clients who focus on still life and automotive photography in a professional way.

In his car-photography, he is especially adapted in 'Old-timer' and 'Young-timer'.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Christian has been working as a freelance photographer since 1991. Clients include Audi Magazine, Europcar, Shell, Castrol, Die Bahn, Esso, Minolta, Mobile.de and Siemens.

He is represented by PAM-Mirjam Böhm in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Darren Capp studied fine art photography and has been shooting professionally since 1990. His art-based study guides him with a depth of vision and sense of style across both advertising and personal work.

Darren's commercial career has taken him across Australia and around the globe. He uses the combination and balance of available and artificial light, expanding on the visual clues within each location. The brief is merely the starting point for Darren to impart his knowledge and sense of fun over the course of a shoot.

His clients include, amongst others, Audi, BMW, Ford, GM, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Renault, Subaru and VW.

David Hoptman has been a commercial photographer and artist for nearly 30 years. His fine art background and familiarity with the many artistic genres enable him to create originally distinctive, one-of-a-kind images.

David has spent the last seven years making art, teaching and doing commercial work while living in Italy. His client list ranges from Sotheby’s and Architectural Digest to mainstream publications like Art in America, Cowboys and Indians Magazine, Trend Magazine and Southwest Airlines Magazine, amongst many others.

Dirk Kruell's roots lie in editorial photography and he has worked journalistically for almost all of the most important magazines in Germany, including Stern, FAZ, Zeit,  Geo, as well as world-wide.

Dirk studied at the Folkwang School (GHS Essen) and has received several prizes and grants for his reports and magazine stories. He is represented by the Laif agency and he is a member of the DGPH.

He has contributed long-term cultural projects like the 'Ruhrgebiet' for the permanent exhibition at the Ruhrmuseum in Essen. In recent years, his work has led him into corporate photography in architecture, industry and transportation.

Since 2005 Dirk has completed five calendar projects for his client Standox / DuPont, realising his own thematic ideas through his unique narrative view. Featured in this Spotlight is a selection of images around the themes 'Timeless Beauties,' 'Colour Fantasies,' 'Car Collectors' and 'Movie Cars'. He is currently working on the 2013 calendar.

Ed Lee has been passionate about photography since picking up a camera aged 11. He is a greatly experienced photographer, particularly in the automotive industry.

Ed is at home as much in the studio as he is on location, but what he enjoys the most is finding the best solutions to challenging commissions. This could involve using his skills in CGI, various lighting techniques, tracking rigs, image manipulation in post production or combined elements of all.

Ed has worked for Jaguar, Honda, Land Rover, Vauxhall, Mercedes-Benz, SAAB, Toyota, SMART, Overfinch, Harley Davidson, and many more.

Erik Chmil is one of Germany's leading high-end advertising photographers and has worked for the automobile industry in various countries around the globe. In February, he shot the brand new Volkswagen Passat Alltrack in South Africa and Norway. 

His recent work includes Porsche Panamera, BMW M Performance, Volkswagen Phaeton, Passat Alltrack and Honda Motorcycles. He also offers in-house post production. 

Clients include Daimler Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Lexus, Opel, Chevrolet, Fiat, Suzuki and BMW. Awards include 2010/2011 Lürzer's Archive '200 Best AD Photographers Worldwide' and 2008 ADC award for the image book 'Discover Steel' (Thyssen Krupp).

Erik is represented in Germany, Switzerland and Austria by PAM-Mirjam Böhm.

For over 30 years, photographer George Saitas has been passionately photographing cars, people and landscapes, and blends the three in his work with clear intent to create his unique and thought-provoking signature imagery.

George is meticulous and thorough in his photographic process, producing the highest quality for each of his clients' specific needs. He has a penchant for conceptual projects and photo essays, seen clearly in his own photo book series - MANTU portfolio. 

George Saitas is based in Athens, Greece and divides his time between Athens, New York and San Francisco. He is available for international shoots and is currently seeking international representation.

His commercial experience includes over 350 feature articles published in 45 magazines, newspapers and ads. His clients include Ford Motor Company, BMW, National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveller, The New York Times, The Robb Report Collections, STUFF, CAR, EVO and Automobile Magazine (12 years contributing artist).

Heiko Simayer was born in Leonberg, Germany. As a teenager he attended the Adolf Lazi Academy for audiovisual media and communication (Stuttgart/Germany), where he studied Photographic Design. During this period he worked for the photographer Frank Busch, associate of the BFF (Confederation of Freelance Photographic Designers).

After completion of his vocational studies, Heiko worked as an independent assistant to a number of reputable photographers such as Michael Schnabel and Christian Schmidt. Since 2003, he has carried out his own projects for Daimler and other well-known clients in the advertising industry.

Heiko is a member of the BFF. He has been represented by Office36 since 2011.

'Character. Strong.' This is the title of the current Mercedes GLK campaign shot in New York City in September 2011. From streets with real stories to tell - paved, tarred, repaired and rough - all ingredients were available to make the GLK shine as a great character actor.

Holger Wild photographed the campaign for Jung von Matt, Hamburg. He staged the scenes with starkly cast shadows that required meticulous timing. CD Tilmann Gossner (campaign), Andreas Ottensmeyer (catalogue), and AD Roman Mitterer were the creatives involved in the project. The shoot was produced by Tim Michel and Volker Dencks.

Hubertus Hamm is one of the most experienced photographers in Germany. Based in Munich, he mainly works in architecture, landscape, people, still life and car photography, often in cooperation with delta E post production.

Hubertus realises international campaigns and editorials with the same amount of creativity and conceptual approach that he puts into his artwork and exhibitions.

Visit his website for more examples of his work.

Ivan Basso is a 3D photographer based in Milan. In 1997, he began work as a CGI artist and 3D animator, collaborating with leading creative agencies and post production crews. Over the years he has contributed his creative passion and great attention to detail to many successful projects.

As a virtual automotive photographer he has created images for use in catalogues, press conferences and ADV campaigns for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Iveco, providing a complete high-end service from CAD data acquisition to final digital retouching.

Jan Willem Scholten recently launched his new website and has been working on several jobs including Savage Rivale, a Dutch-based car company that produces ”the road-yacht GTS - the only four-door on-demand roofless super car in the world.”

Jan Willem also completed a job for Mini Netherlands, creating a 5m X 17m image that is on display in the new Amsterdam brand store. The high quality, extremely sharp image is full of rich detail. See Showcase Amsterdam for more information. 

For the German market, Jan Willem has started working with new agent Gunda Patzke (Frankfurt), while in the Dutch market he remains with Arnold van de Berg.

Jan Willem is a visual director who combines the best of different worlds, making him flexible with low overheads and able to deliver great results.

Visit his website for more information.

Latest news from Munich-based photographer Marcus Sauer:

• Marcus took photos for the magazine Designers Digest; Katja Dalek from Mainworks in Frankfurt was responsible for the post production.
• For Porsche, backplates were photographed in San Fransisco. The images of the cars are CGI files and were realized by RECOM in Stuttgart; the agency involved was Kemper Kommunikation.
• The images for Mini were taken in Sirius Studios in Munich together with the agengy Plantage from Berlin. OEW was in charge of the post production.
• In Stockholm, Marcus took photos for Audi, together with the agency Philipp und Keuntje from Hamburg.

Paul Barshon is a leading expert in automotive photography and is recognised around the world due to his distinctive style and ease of a working relationship.

Paul has photographed for over 20 major manufacturers and many more magazines and online resources. Recently, he has photographed brochures and above the line for Toyota, Lexus, McLaren, Triumph, Yamaha and Kawasaki.

He is Australian-born and currently resides in London.

Paul J Harvey’s passion for dynamic landscapes combined with his technical automotive skills make him a natural choice for this very specialised field of work.

Numerous global advertising campaigns have been realised over the past decade, as well as pure landscape commissions for Shell, SNCF and Gdf-Suez.

New technologies such as 3D CGI have also been embraced, with imagery commissioned for the launch of Renault electric vehicles.

Paul’s landscape work is regularly displayed at galleries in both London and Paris.

Additional clients include Assystem, Channel4, Chrysler, Citroen, Concorde-Lafayette, Ford, Honda, Lancia, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Toyota and Volkswagen.

René and Patrick Staud are real car guys. They enjoy a passion for combining car photography and CGI with lifestyle and landscape shots. With more than 30 years of experience in the industry, René has assembled a team of 10 in-house artists who create images across photography, CGI and post production.

The 60-year anniversary of the Mercedes-Benz SL was the occasion for staging one of the very first models (Production Car No.3) together with the brand new SL in their Stuttgart studio.

In the beautiful alleys of Prague, the new C63 AMG Coupé found its perfect backdrop. The exterior and interior of the car was realised in CGI. 

Together with BBDO Beijing, the new Mercedes M-Class was shot between Switzerland, the USA and South Africa for the Chinese launch campaign. The  Interstuhl art calendar provided the occasion to stage this remarkable office chair in diverse surroundings between Iceland and Africa.

Staud Studios is represented by Avocado Artists Moscow.

Richard Thompson III is a Los Angeles-based automotive photographer. His high energy, atmospheric photography makes use of vibrant colour and draws on experience in the racing world to shape images bearing the essence and character of each car. His background in graphic design lends strong elements of form and composition to his work that make it ideal for advertising and editorial use.

Work in automotive photography has taken him across North America and Europe shooting advertising and editorial images for auto industry companies, ad agencies and car organisations.

A resident of Los Angeles for over 25 years, Damon’s love affair with film and photography began at the age of 16 and has never ended. After graduating from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, he worked his way up the photography ranks before relocating to the West Coast in 1990. 

Tim’s uncanny eye and visual expertise is equally effective whether shooting people, action, or products for ad campaigns all over the world. He has become one of the world’s premier photographers, recognised for his groundbreaking work for Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, Land Rover, Toyota, Chevy and Honda.

Tim has just recently wrapped up jobs with Cadillac, Toyota, Goodyear, Acura, Subaru, and Lincoln.

Stefano Morini is a German-Italian photographer. Based in Barcelona with worldwide commissions, he is pleased to present his latest works:

• Chevrolet Malibu Chinese campaign shot in California.
• Chevrolet Malibu Chinese campaign shot on Hainan Island.
• New Fiat 500 L presentation images, shot in Italy.

"This is a journey through a beautiful world for automotive locations. Times are different, not necessarily regarding budgets but certainly in terms of today's timelines and demands. Together with my business partner, Peter Boudestein, we offer our product - Car Shoot Ready Locations - for a fixed price.

"Travelling around the world for advertising agencies, crazy art directors and clients for 20 years, we have locations in every aspect, from East to West, cold to hot landscapes, forests and cities. With over 500,000 locations in our huge archive, why look further and lose time when we can deliver fast results, even in high-res?

"Welcome to our next generation locations."

Born and trained in England, Terry Collier's passion for images led him initially into the feature film industry and then into the commercial world of advertising that he now pursues internationally. He has shot in most major North American locations, South America and Europe, with access to all production support required. 

To say Terry brings clarity and a caressing quality of light to the automotive arena is an understatement. His portfolio includes virtually every automobile manufacturer known, resulting in over 100 international awards. For the past 15 years he has balanced his high profile print work with award-winning motion commercial shoots. 

Terry's recent work includes location and studio campaigns for Mercedes Sprinter, Nissan and Toyota. Wherever he shoots, his stringently high standards are balanced by his calming force and professionalism. With his crew of highly trained assistants, the most ambitious of projects are executed with unlimited creative potential.