Stockland Martel » automotive

New work: Uwe Duettmann for BMW Magazine

Kristina Feliciano — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:39:29 +0000

Uwe Duettmann recently shot a feature story for Germany’s BMW Magazine, with a royal-blue BMW M5 as the star. Here’s a look:

Photo by Uwe Duettmann for BMW Magazine.

Photos by Uwe Duettmann for BMW Magazine.

New work: Jason “Giblin” Hindley for Subaru

Kristina Feliciano — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:44:21 +0000

Subaru is introducing a new car, the XV Crossover, and to announce the launch, they’ve just this month released an ad campaign produced by BJL in Manchester, England (they’re the most awarded agency outside London), and photographed by Jason “Giblin” Hindley, who worked with creative director Tom Richards and art director Adrian Dews.

“We had a lot to do over 9 days, which consisted of 4 days in a car studio in Banbury and 5 days on location in and around Manchester,” writes Keiko Hindley, Jason’s studio manager, at Jason’s blog. “There was mud, dogs, farmers, various outdoor and house locations. Above all, we had great creative and account teams and the loveliest (and very funny) client. We all got stuck in and had a blast.”

Here’s a look at the first four ads in the campaign, as well as some behind-the-scenes shots. There are more ads from this campaign to come later this month, and I’ll update the post as soon as we get them.

From the new ad campaign for the Subaru XV Crossover. Photos by Jason "Giblin" Hindley for BJL and Subaru.

Jason at work in the car studio. Photo courtesy Keiko Hindley.

Photos by Jason "Giblin" Hindley for BJL and Subaru.

Jason on location—in a shoe closet. "He'll shoot anywhere," jokes Keiko. Photo courtesy Keiko Hindley.

Photos by Jason "Giblin" Hindley for BJL and Subaru.

Do we see an upturn in automotive advertising, perhaps?

Kristina Feliciano — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:37:49 +0000

There’s no question that automotive advertising spending stalled with the recession, but recently there have been signs that this category is picking up speed. We’re not talking a full recovery, but progress is being made.

“Ad spending for cars and credit cards has come roaring back, helping drive 8.8% growth in 2010 U.S. spending for the 100 Leading National Advertisers—the highest growth rate since 2004,” Ad Age reported last June. “Financial advertising surged 29% in 2010, and automotive accelerated 28%, based on Ad Age Data Center’s estimates of U.S. spending for the 12 financial firms and 10 automakers that made the 100 LNA ranking.”

Part of a 2011 Audi campaign shot by Jan Steinhilber.

From a 2011 campaign for Honda shot by Fulvio Bonavia.

From a 2011 campaign for Porsche shot by John Offenbach.

We’re noticing the uptick right here at Stockland Martel, both among the agency’s longtime car shooters and photographers who are more in the generalist vein. “Last year, we had both Jan Steinhilber and John Offenbach shooting campaigns for Porsche,” says Maureen Martel. “Jan also shot for Cadillac and Audi. Uwe Duettmann shot for Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW. Fulvio Bonavia shot for Honda. Hyundai and Renault commissioned Nadav Kander, which is interesting because he’s primarily known as a portrait photographer. And Art Streiber shot an advertorial for Nissan.

“It’s exciting to see this upswing,” she adds, “because automotive advertising offers photographers the chance to be so creative.”

From a 2011 campaign for Hyundai shot by Nadav Kander.

Nissan commissioned Art Streiber to shoot this advertorial featuring the actor Ryan Reynolds.

A 2011 ad for Volkswagen shot by Uwe Duettmann.

Reporting on the 2012 North American International Auto Show earlier this month, Ad Age indicated that “confidence brims,” explaining that “the industry’s upbeat mood was fueled by 2011 sales of nearly 13 million cars and light trucks in the U.S., according to data from Automotive News.”

And last month, Adweek took note of WPP’s plans to establish a new agency whose mission is to boost Ford’s Lincoln brand. “The agency, which will have a staff of some 45 employees—some plucked from WPP’s Team Detroit unit—will focus on account management, creative, and planning. Team Detroit, which handles parent company Ford, WPP’s largest global client, will also provide support on nuts-and-bolts services like creative production, media buying, and accounting from its headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. McNauhgton will report to Team Detroit CEO Satish Korde.”

We’re not saying pre-2008 ad spending is back. But happier days are perhaps here again…

Uwe Duettmann for BMW.

Jan Steinhilber for Porsche.

Nadav Kander for Renault.

Jan Steinhilber for Cadillac.

See more: Stockland Martel automotive photography by Jorg Badura, Fulvio Bonavia, David Drebin, Uwe Duettmann, Jason “Giblin” Hindley, John Offenbach, Martin Sigal, and Jan Steinhilber

Spotlight: Uwe Duettmann

Kristina Feliciano — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:13:38 +0000

Uwe Duettmann.

Many people think of Uwe Duettmann in terms of his automotive photography, and it’s true that he’s highly skilled at portraying cars from any number of perspectives. Might, machine, materials, the experience of the drive, sex appeal, practical appeal, humorous appeal—he has expressed all of this and more for clients ranging from Mercedes to Mini, Porsche, Audi, BMW, and Smart. The man is basically a car-photography virtuoso.

But Uwe is driven by far more than just automotives. In Europe, in fact, he’s best known as a photographer of people. Some highlights from his portfolio: Two beehived women misbehave in an ad for Frau magazine; a beauty queen rides a subway in full pageant regalia for an Mtel campaign; a child dressed as a ladybug mopes atop a silver sedan in an ad for FTD. And then there’s his sports advertising for clients such as Nike, Adidas, and Asics, which captures the sweat, the emotion, the movement, and also a kind of marvelous power that comes only from great physical strength.

In the past two-plus decades, Uwe has amassed more than a few armloads of awards, including from the London International Advertising Awards, the Art Directors Club in Germany, and the AOP. But he rarely looks back. He hardly has time to, as he’s always in demand, always collaborating with another art director on another great image and always confident that he will hit his mark. “All I need is good direction,” he says. “It’s like jumping off a plane in a parachute: Even if the target is just one meter by one meter, I’ll land on it.”

Here’s a look at Uwe’s work. To see more, visit stocklandmartel.com/talent/uwe-duettmann/photography.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for Volkswagen. Agency: Tribal DDB. Art director: Annika Kempkensteffen-Jöck.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for Nivea.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for Frau magazine.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for Nike in China.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for BlackBerry. Agency: Weis Communications Germany. Creative director: Tonguç Baykurt.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann, from a campaign for the Mercedes C-Class. Agency: Jung von Matt. Creative director: Deneke Weltzien. Art director: Tilman Gossner.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann for BMW Magazine. Shot for Ringzwei. Creative director: Dirk Linke.Click image to see more.

Photo by Uwe Duettmann.

John Offenbach has a snow day in L.A. for Porsche. Plus: Behind-the-scenes video.

Kristina Feliciano — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:23:04 +0000

What do you do when you need to photograph a Porsche in the snow, but your location is sunny L.A.? This past February, Cramer-Krasselt commissioned John Offenbach to shoot a 6-ad print campaign for the German automaker featuring the glossy car in various setting, including a snow-blanketed neighborhood. Here, John fills us in on how he got the shot.

Who says it never snows in L.A.? Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche USA.

Agency: Cramer-Kasselt. Art director: Luke Partridge. Production: Michael McClellan.

We had to shoot five ads that required sunny L.A. locations and one in the snow. It turned out to be too costly to send cars and crew to the snow, so we went the Hollywood route and created our own on a Universal Studios backlot.

Creating snow may have seemed extravagant, but put into context, relocating to a snowy location for the one shot would have been too problematic and too expensive, with vehicle prep and transportation, cast, production, lighting, and grip, styling, props, overnight stays for the whole unit, etc. Plus, it was very hot, and nearby snow locations were proving hard to find.

Of course, we shot on what seemed to be the hottest day of the year, and the snow we put down was real ice, ground down. We had to race against it melting. The whole thing was surreal—besides the snow, we had the Spider-Man set on one side of us and Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane to the other! —John Offenbach

Click here to watch a behind-the-scenes video of John and his crew creating the shot above. Below, three of the other images John shot for the campaign:

Photo by John Offenbach for Cramer-Krasselt and Porsche.

Fulvio Bonavia on how he got an “impossible” shot for a car client

Kristina Feliciano — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:32:48 +0000

What do you do when a client asks for a shot that’s impossible to get? You find a way to make it happen, of course. Fulvio Bonavia was recently commissioned by Publicis Italy to get a shot for a Renault Espace MPV ad that, he says, was a classic “mission impossible” situation because the location was at odds with the look they wanted. And then a lighting emergency during the shoot added to the challenge. (There’s always something, isn’t there?)

Here, Fulvio, who worked with Publicis Italy creative director Patrizio Marini and art director Guido Scamporrino, explains how he got the photo his client needed.

The ad, minus copy, for the Renault Espace MPV shot by Fulvio Bonavia for Publicis Italy.

“They were asking for a modern-looking location with a cool cityscape background. The agency made the layout using a bridge that’s located in L.A. As you know, Italy is more famous for old-style architecture, so it is not easy to find modern bridges here. We have some, especially by Calatrava, but they are overused by every car brand.

The producer suggested a bridge in Padova, but it was under construction (though close to being finished). Still, I knew it would work for the shot. We decided to shoot the car on a closed street and to shoot the bridge separately. The day before the shoot, I did a tech scout to make sure everything was in order for our nighttime shoot. But the evening of the shoot, as we were building a track to take the shot of the bridge in movement, all the lights in the entire area went out. This was on a Sunday, and when we called the city to ask for help, our request was rejected because for them it wasn’t an urgent situation. Meanwhile, it was very urgent for us because we needed to deliver the final image the next day!

So after few minutes of panic, I decided to light the entire bridge with the lights I used for the car. And then in postproduction, I used a photo that I shot from a terrace in Hong Kong last summer for the background. The deepness of the color worked perfectly for this image, I think.

Fulvio used this photo, which he took on a visit to Hong Kong, for the background.

In the end, it was a nice experience—working through the challenges actually gave me the chance to light the bridge exactly as I liked.”

Chinese lifestyle mag features Kwaku Alston’s “Volkslivin” project

Kristina Feliciano — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:33:16 +0000

The Outlook is a Chinese magazine that strives to become “synonymous to a lifestyle guide for The Creative Elite, and the new generation of creative and artistic talent of China. We believe that lifestyle and the view of aesthetics is the reflection of small personal details.” So it makes sense that the editors would find an affinity with Kwaku Alston‘s “Volkslivin,” an ongoing photo series that documents vintage Volkswagen buses wherever Kwaku finds them, many of them customized by their loyal owners. The April issue of The Outlook features a big pullout poster of images from “Volkslivin,” which celebrates aesthetics, personal details, and a specific lifestyle, modest though it may be. It’s fun to think about someone in China putting it up on their wall and being transported.

"Volkslivin" poster and the April issue of The Outlook. Photo courtesy Kwaku Alston's blog, The Art of Studio.

Presenting… 22 new editorial and advertising highlights

Kristina Feliciano — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:45:29 +0000

I’ll be taking next week off, but to tide you over, here’s a look at 22 of our photographers’ latest editorial and advertising shoots, as featured in our spring e-newsletter. See you on Monday, April 4…

Photo by Michael Muller. Click to see more.

Photos by Lauren Greenfield. Click to see more.

Photo by Jim Fiscus. Click to see more.

Photo by Kai-Uwe Gundlach. Click to see more.

Photos by Kwaku Alston.

Photo by Tom Rafalovich. Click to see more.

Photos by Art Streiber. Click to see more.

Photos by Liz Von Hoene. Click to see more.

Photo by John Offenbach. Click to see more.

Photo by Martin Sigal. Click to see more.

Photo by David Drebin. Click to see more.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber. Click to see more.

Photo by Matthias Clamer. Click to see more.

Photo by Nino Munoz.

Photo by Jeff Lipsky. Click to see more.

Portrait by Matthew Rolston.

Photo by Roxanne Lowit. Click to see more.

Photo by Nadav Kander. Click to see more.

Photo by Walter Iooss. Click to see more.

Photo by Luca Zordan. Click to see more.

Photo by Hans Gissinger. Click to see more.

Photo by John Midgley. Click to see more.

Spotlight: Jan Steinhilber

Kristina Feliciano — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:40:16 +0000

Jan Steinhilber.

Communication Arts published an interview with Jan Steinhilber in December 2009 that describes the German photographer thusly:

“Photographer Jan Steinhilber studied graphic design with the ambition to become an art director—and accidentally discovered photography during the studies. He got deeper into it by working as an assistant for different photographers and finally decided to make his way as a freelance photographer. He established his own studio in 2000 and since then has worked with great enthusiasm for numerous clients, magazines and ad agencies—and whenever possible he works on personal projects to develop his skills and bring his own ideas to life. His awards include the German Art Directors Club, British AOP, PDN, Graphis, and Communication Arts.”

What could we possibly add to the above? That Jan is bracingly clear about what he’s trying to say with each image, a process that generally involves a great deal of sketching that he refers to as “layouts.” (His clients include all the major car companies—Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, etc.—and his skill with conceptual still lifes has drawn commissions from Nike, Trident, Smirnoff, and others.) He’s driven by the goal that all photographers have, which is to make a photograph that has an unmistakable impact. The difference with Jan is that he knows how to get there.

“I try to understand the idea of the image, or even make up an idea if it is personal work,” he once told online magazine The F STOP. “I judge everything I do by asking me whether this helps the idea or not.”

Here’s a look at Jan’s work:

Photo by Jan Steinhilber.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber for Camel.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber for Smirnoff.

Photo by Jan Steinhilber.

To see more of Jan’s work, visit stocklandmartel.com/talent/jan-steinhilber/photography or steinhilber.biz.

Spotlight: Fulvio Bonavia

Kristina Feliciano — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:00:35 +0000

Fulvio Bonavia.

Fulvio Bonavia started out as a graphic designer and illustrator of film posters, and this artistic sensibility has no doubt contributed to his success as an advertising and editorial photographer both in his native Italy and worldwide. His work—which has been honored by Communication Arts, PDN, the Italian Art Directors Club, and the IPA, among others—is conceptual at the very highest level, yet accessible and comprehensible to all. Luerzer’s Archive named Fulvio one of the 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide in 2008/2009 and chose one of his photos as the cover for its 400-page book.

In one recent series, he created apparel and accessories using, of all things, flowers. A bike helmet is made of fuzzy purple flowers. A bikini comprises many delicate little blossoms. A perfume atomizer boasts creamy white petals. The series is at once a celebration of beauty and an acknowledgment of just how ephemeral it is. We see this, too, in his landscapes, which elevate rather prosaic scenes—a soccer field, a parking lot, a suburban street corner—into fine-art explorations of color, space, and composition. (And gallerists have started to take note.)

Like his flower series, Fulvio’s book A Matter of Taste also nudges us to consider how we look at ordinary things. It’s a collection of jewelry and accessories that he composed out of edibles. “Step out in style in a pair of corn espadrilles. A tagliatelle belt makes for a delicious main course, but should always be worn al dente,” enthused one journalist in response to the unique coffee-table book, which has been written about in virtually all of the top European newspapers and magazines.

We don’t know where Fulvio gets his ideas, but we do know he always leaves us, and his clients, hungry for more.

Selected highlights from Fulvio’s portfolios at stocklandmartel.com:

CONCEPTUAL STILL LIFE

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.

PEOPLE

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.

CONCEPTUAL FOOD

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.

AUTOMOTIVE

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.

LANDSCAPE

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.

CONCEPTUAL LIFESTYLE

Photo by Fulvio Bonavia.