Though it’s up to you to judge the result, I put together this week’s group of photographers with an aim to balance city aesthetics with the wide, bucolic scope of the countryside, all with a focus on vintage cars. I’ve numbed my bum driving through hours and endless hours of open spaces, and conversely I’ve spent far too much collective time cursing block after city block of crowded streets looking for parking, but beyond those issues there is plenty of reason to seek out both environments on your next drive. Navigate the gnarl of your nearest city grid with a compact drop-top as you time yourself on the urban autocross on the way to morning coffee, or find a straight spacious road and take a GT car for some exercise, letting the tach complete its sweep in every gear. Whatever your preference, find some inspiration for the weekend’s drive of choice in the accounts below.
Paul Johnson is based in Britain, and scrolling through his account you’ll find all slices of the deep classic scene that exists under the Union Jack. He attends all the big events that you’d expect from someone who shares a country code with Goodwood and Silverstone, but he isn’t opposed to making the drive to the lesser-known events too. Regardless of where he ends up, the images he produces are crisp, well composed, rich with color, and his portfolio features a balanced blend of black and whites, color, action shots, and static scenes.
Stephen Fry shares a name with a famous comedian, but his talents lie elsewhere. A master of car-to-car photography, Stephen’s images draw you in with commercial-grade quality, but instead of brilliant shots of boring cars, he’ll keep you interested with frames filled with modern classics and a smattering of ’70s goodness from Japan and Europe. Spend a few minutes on his page and you’ll see RS-ified Cosworth-powered Fords, brilliant white NSXes wearing their proper Honda badges, winged Mistubishis, tastefully modified JDM classics, as well as the latest GT machines.
Clemence Taralevich shoots parked cars in the city of London. It’s not a novel idea on the face of it, but unlike most everyone else snapping street scenes, the photos in his portfolio are more than just “information.” There isn’t much exploration in terms composition—there are only a few ways to take photos of cars in front of apartments (sorry, flats) after all—but there is something that sets this collection apart from the others, and I think you can pin it on his restraint; you get a sense that even though these are taken on his cell phone, Taralevich is patient, waits until the right car is in front of the right building, and in doing so we’re left with a series of images that don’t need to rely on the existence of the others in order to capture your attention.
If I knew Zanebonk’s real name I would include it here, but since his Instagram bio is currently populated by a lonely link to the Jehovah’s Witness website, I can only guess who this dude really is. As long as he doesn’t come knocking with his pamphlets it’s no problem though, as the important thing in the context of our weekly list is not what he’s called, but what he creates with a camera. If you’re an outdoor cat rather than an indoor one, love the piney nature of the Pacific Northwest, and prefer your off-road vehicles vintage, you’ll love this profile. Find VWs, Land Rovers, BMWs, Volvos, all kinds of blocky beauties being enjoyed and put to work.
Continuing with our recent shift toward making the fifth spot a “not-auto” feature, this week we have a young photographer who’s mixing striking architecture with some aggressive post-processing. Spending his time in Berlin, Germany and Linz, Austria, Paul Eis has a lot of material to work with, and his technique makes use of existing buildings for their geometric merits before making his changes. After choosing the subject, he then cuts out the background before editing in a liberal splash of color, transforming already intriguing industrial designs into vibrant, slightly surreal, extremely saturated structures that we wish our cities were made of in reality.
As always, we finish up with a shameless plug: if you’re not finding enough top-notch vintage content already on Instagram, hop into the official Petrolicious account and fix that problem!
