Instagram is a medium used for all kinds of activity both pointless and poignant, but regardless of which side of production or consumption side you’re on, it’s a short and sweet delivery system for our photographic inspiration and dissemination. So, this week I’m going to take a virtual page out of their book and get right to it: these are the five automotive photographers you should add to your feed if you haven’t already.
Robin Adams’ work has a consistent polish to it, and while it isn’t part of the flashiest set of automotive photography that’s out there, it earns a different kind of distinction. Each shoot has relies on showing the car as it is; there are no wild filters and no reliance on an otherworldly quality to mask mistakes in lighting or composition. It’s just crisp, clean work showcasing the cars we love in places we wish we could drive them. It sounds simple, but to achieve it at this level must involve a great deal of skill and restraint. It’s a style that’s increasingly getting crowded out by crazy editing, and I’m happy to have found someone who relies on the fundamentals to produce compelling car portraits.
Matt Howell is a commercial-grade pro, but open up any big magazine and you can find tons of his and his colleagues’ work. I don’t mean that to take away anything from their portfolios though, and I only mention how much great work is being printed because it highlights what makes the Instagram version of his photos worth looking at. There are a fair amount of shares of his finished photos, but the real treat here is that Matt brings you behind the scenes on his shoots. Reposting everything on your website is all fine and good, but this is how you really make the most of the Instagram platform if you’re a photographer.
Imi Bíró takes most of his photos with his phone, but bounce around his account for a few seconds and you’ll see that its more interesting than most full-time photographers’ pages. He travels frequently, and often the protagonist of these adventures is his vintage VW Beetle. It appears in front of urban landmarks around Europe like Brussels’ Atomium and London’s Big Ben, and then in the next row you might see it laying in the grass at the foothills of towering mountains. Then you’ll most likely see it up in that elevation. This is a page that unfolds more like a story than a portfolio, and you’ll enjoy following along with him and his Bug if you like the idea of classic cars adding to their odometers around iconic European cities and countrysides.
Philipp Rupprecht is representative of what can be accomplished with nighttime photography. Many of his locations involve a night sky and a soft but vibrant source of manmade light, and while there’s plenty of color it never feels at all amateur. That’s because it isn’t of course—he’s clearly honed this style and perfected it over the course of years—but still, a lot of high-quality galleries will overdo it when it comes to the after-dusk stuff. Philipp’s account is packed with these dramatic shots full of contrast and color, but he also shows shows some pieces of the life he leads in between the photos. Overall it’s a nice blend of theatrical representations of cool cars and real life.
If you’re like me, Patrick Curtet’s Instagram collection will pull you in for the cars and then leave you planning an abstract trip to go see “cool landscapes.” There is a big handful of autos passing across his viewfinder, but it’s the big swaths of land and sea that I think are the best part of his page. Often the two mix though, and that’s the best combination: cars, cameras, and a good place to capture their mechanical beauty in juxtaposition with the natural splendors of Earth. As for the rest, it’s a smattering of travel shots, itineraries, random street captures, and some peeks behind the scenes.
As always, we’ll end with our own account; if you aren’t already following Petrolicious on Instagram but enjoy our content, you’ll only find more of it here!
