Category: Automotive Photographers
Clare Tarbox
Clare Tarbox is a Milton Keynes based photographer with a particular interest in Volkswagens – She owns several! A regular contributor to Ultra-VW magazine, her coverage of VW shows and drag racing action includes some fantastic pictures which really capture the spirit of the Volkswagen scene. I’ve picked just a few of her brilliant VW drag-racing shots to showcase her work here.
You can view lots more of her photographs on her website: http://claretarbox.com
Stephane Bar
Some interesting VW related photos from Stephane Bar, a professional photographer based in France who specialises in BMX photography.
Stephane trained as a photographer for 2 years at SEPR in Lyon through which he discovered different shooting and image processing techniques. This vocational training has allowed him to explore other worlds and develop some diversity in the services that he can now offer including: weddings, studio shots, pack-shots, portraits and advertising.
“It is the sport of BMX has given me the desire to capture and keep preciously unique moments, and then have the opportunity to share. This sport has the advantage of bringing together diverse disciplines whose figures have their own specificity. The Street – pretty rough around the edges, offers feats that impress the eye with the height that some riders can reach and by the unusual places where they can be exercised.”
You can view more of Stephane’s excellent work at http://stephanebarphotos.tumblr.com
Downtown Los Angeles by Heather Lee Brough
This fantastic series of photographs was taken by Heather Lee Brough and features Isabel, the 1956 VW Beetle. There’s lots more great Volkswagen photography, amongst other subjects over on Heather’s blog: heatherleebrough.wordpress.com
Willem-Aart van Dorpen
Willem-Aart van Dorpen is an automotive photographer based in The Netherlands. I recently contacted him to ask about his VW photograph on Flickr. Along with some VW show photography, Willem-Aart has started a new Flickr site and gone up a gear producing some fantastic VW photos that really stand out as being a bit special. I’m looking forward to seeing more of his excellent photography in the future.
“First of all, I would like to thank Malcolm for the opportunity to introduce myself on this blog. You’re doing a great job!
When I started out photographing cars in around 2007, I immediately fell in love with it. The endless artistic possibilities and technical challenges combined with my other passion, cars, is one of the many things that makes me truly happy. The fact that some of my work is appreciated by others serves as a great motivation to push myself further each and every time.
When I started out there was little or no direction, but recently things got a little bit more serious. Because I’ve always been fascinated by the work of commercial photographers like René Staud, Anton Watts and Martijn Oort, I took a two-year break from photography to educate myself on subjects like traditional art theory, creative retouching and CGI. While I’m not even close to the level I’m striving to achieve, I feel that my work has made significant progress. Every image proves to be an experiment, bringing new challenges and insights which keeps photography very interesting. There is not a single tool I leave untouched – cheating does not exist in photography as far as I’m concerned!
I’ve had my fair share of publications in magazines like ClassicVW, Ultra VW and Airmighty Megascene. It’s a great way to gain exposure and share your work with other VW enthusiasts. My goal is to create commercial-grade automotive photography in the not too distant future. Editorial publications are nice, but advertising and brochure photography is a whole different level. In the meantime, I’ll keep photographing a lot of nice vintage Volkswagens because they, and the people around them, will always have a special place in my heart.”
Visit Willem-Aart’s flickr site…
Götz Göppert
Götz Göppert was born in Munich in 1969. Based in Paris, he travels around the world in search of ‘unprecedented and unusual’ subjects. He loves his camera, doing lifestyle images or his beauty shots and his documentary series. He feels home whenever he can take pictures, in his hometown or on his trips all all over the world. Developing his very own and very personal style he loves to do his portraits and his reportages on location as much as his beauty shots in a studio.
After a long time working only for beauty clients he started to do reportages when he shot for his book “une annee autour de Sancerre”. This one year project about a wine region introduced him into reportage photography and he really enjoyed working under these very new and different conditions. From there on he started to work more and more in this very different direction not forgetting is natural and fresh beauty work. Mixing these different styles of photography makes his work so interesting and gives Götz always new opportunities to treat and handle his images, and he is never short of new ideas.
His website features four galleries of automotive photography – Track, Parked, Panoramic and Bikes. Visit his website…
Dom Romney
Dom Romney is an internationally award winning automotive and motor sport photographer working out of London, England. At only seventeen Dom started as work as a press photographer before decided to set up his own business – Dom Romney Photography was born in the spring of 2010, and has grown quickly in to a brand with clients across the globe.
Working solely with editorial and commercial clients, Dom’s high contrast vibrant work has already won him numerous awards and recognition from his peers. Along with his success as a photographer, Dom also provides lectures at the world renowned Citylit centre in london, teaching on a mix of techniques and technologies.
Dom writes “I got the call from Fast Car magazine to shoot this awesome aircooled for their wild card section, however to do justice to its American barn-find heritage, it needed to be shot in barn! Typical English barns are normally of concrete and corrugated steel construction, a far cry from the traditional timber barns you get in the States and hardly a nice photographic backdrop. After locating a plausible wooden barn in middle england (a task that was harder than you’d expect) we set about shooting it. To add to the vintage, weathered feel and to give the image the same feel as that satin, suede patina, we processed the images with some warm muted textures which I think really make the feature. Here is a small selection of my favourite images from the shoot.”
You can view more of Dom’s photography at domromney.com
Peter Keetman – Volkswagen: a week at the factory
No blog about Volkswagens and photography would be complete without a look at the work of Peter Keetman who spent a week in 1953 documenting the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg, Germany. Keetman was born in Germany in 1916 and was a founder of the photographers’ collective ‘fotoform’. He was keen to promote industrial photography and in April ’53 was given the opportunity to spend a week photographing at the VW factory. He failed to promote industrial photography but succeeded in producing a series of 71 iconic images, not only capturing the manufacturing process but showing the beauty of the component pieces with a disciplined eye for shape and texture.
Volkswagen: A Week at the Factory – photographs by Peter Keetman
If you have any interest in photograph, Volkswagens or perhaps both, this wonderful book is an absolute must. Keetman’s iconic photographs are beautifully reproduced and capture the car industry giant’s early days in fascinating detail and with great imagination. Available in several editions from paperback to hardback – search for Peter Keetman at Amazon and be prepared to be inspired by Peter’s amazing photographs!
Brian White
Brian is a photographer based in Western Australia and I’ve been following his work for Circlework Sports Media for a while now.
Circlework specialise in motor sport and action photography along with commercial and feature photo shoots. They have covered everything from local surfing to state motocross to V8 Supercars and the World Rally Championships.
Brian writes “I have been shooting automotive subjects since 1991. Currently I supply feature stories and photo shoots to national and international media outlets as well as commercial photography services to clients. My job is ideal as I get to travel and shoot some amazing vehicles, locations, and events. My favourite travel adventures involve road trips in my 1962 split window Kombi. There’s nothing like the open road in a classic car.”
Leigh Garipidis
I was recently pointed towards Leigh’s amazing photography by a couple of ‘photo of the week’ posts on another automotive blog. No mention of who the photographer was though, just some great photographs! I dug a little deeper and discovered they were the work of Leigh Garipidis in Australia. Leigh’s work covers a wide spectrum of subjects all captured beautifully. It’s well worth a look at Leigh’s other work as these Volkswagen shots are just a very small part of a great portfolio.
Leigh writes “I am a photographer based in Melbourne Australia and have been photographing for about 9 years now. Having a passion for cars, I began there. This was always driven by the thought that alot of car magazines, where not capturing the character of the car. They seemed to be just photos. I wanted for people to see my images as portraits of cars, giving them identities, rather than just badges. Self taught for about the first 6 years, in both camera craft and photoshop, I knew that I wanted to do more and make a career out of it, so I went back to school to do an Advanced Diploma in Photography, which I have almost completed. Looking to major in commercial photography, and specialising in automotive.
I try to give my work meaning, whether through a story or an emotional response and to allow the viewer to have their own thoughts about the image rather than trying to portray a specific message.
I also wanted to try to capture what car designers envision when they create these things. Through school I have also delved into various other areas of photography, but when it comes down to enjoyment and relaxation, I always revert back to automotive imagery. I also just recently photographed the front cover and feature piece for the Australian online magazine, Aircooled Classics, the car being a Porsche 550 Spyder replica.”
Leigh is currently putting together a blog with limited edition prints available for purchase but
if you are interested in something, please feel free to email Leigh at this address for further details: leighgaripidis@gmail.com
View more of Leigh’s work on Flickr…
David Hall
David Hall is a photographer based in Birmingham, England. He loves photography and will shoot everyone and everything, from beautiful summer weddings, thrash metal bands, sportscars, families and a little bit of pretty much everything in-between. He works up and down the country and when he’s lucky, occasionally further afield.
David writes “I’m passionate about old Volkswagens. The love affair started when I was really little, my older cousin passed his test and his first car was a 70’s beetle. Having been taken for a spin in it I was hooked. Lots of drooling and fantasizing over old Volkswagen’s later, I am now the proud owner of the bus you see below. She is a 1961 23 window samba imported from New York approx 9 years ago as a complete wreck. Rust on top of rust, holes everywhere and in need of some serious TLC. Roll on a few years and Matt at Smiths of Cornwall waved his magic restoration wand and Jemima as we affectionately call her was re-born.”
Visit David’s website…
Bandwagen 