It’s been a minute since we’ve done one of these but the Instagram machine has kept doing its thing in the meantime, churning out more content than any one person can keep up with. If the digital camera democratized the field of photography by making the process cheaper, faster, and far easier to come up the curve on, then I’d argue that Instagram has been the second most impactful “invention” in terms of turning people into photo hobbyists. Most of the content on the app is pure junk that provides just cause for bafflement—nobody really cares about the blurry shot you took of last night’s concert apart from the people that you would have shared it with in person, and even making fun of that is a cliché these days—but I think trudging through that stuff is worth it to find the talented people who share our interests in cool automobiles. Here are five more to add to your list to even the scales against pictures of your friends’ breakfast smoothies.
Sebastian Kubatz is a German-based photographer who seems to partner up with Porsche and their privateer racing teams more often than not, and regardless of shooting in the snow or the sunshine his images possess a richness that feels right to call cinematic. The types of images are pleasantly varied in the Instagram portion of his portfolio, and there’s a nice balance struck between rolling and static, details and documentary. Plus, if you’re curious to peek into how its done, there are a few behind-the-scenes-type posts scattered among the finished products.
Matt Parsons will post a photo of a car from time to time, but you’ll want to follow him for his artwork. An accomplished artist when it comes to both traditional drawings and computer-generated ones, Parsons’ work covers a lot of ground on a paper and the screen. His subjects range from accurate OE representations to the kinds of custom builds that rarely if ever get attempted in 1:1 scale. He also includes some of his original sports and supercar designs, and a lot of them are far better lookers than what manufacturers are actually building as of late.
If the concept of “vintage gentleman racer” had an Instagram page, this would probably be it. Scenes from the paddocks, the spectator zones, the track, and the details that fill the spaces in between them, it’s all mixed up in a beautiful collage on James Lynch’s page, pistonphoto. Goodwood is featured prominently—makes sense—but in the same way that the venue hosts cars from nearly every era and discipline, Lynch’s work doesn’t feel repetitive. That’s due in part to the variety of vehicles, sure, but it’s more a testament to his talents in composition.
I don’t know Dani, but as he’s a self-proclaimed BMW collector and driver, I think we’d get along just fine. Even if you aren’t a big Bimmer fan though, the quality of his work is intriguing enough by itself. He peppers in a few other marques—and these aren’t just any old cars found on the street, like the 512M he featured recently—but the look and feel of his work is consistently clean. There’s a depth to the colors in his shots that’s very tricky to pull off without overdoing it in the Adobe Suite, and his shallow depth of field resists the gimmicky feeling that others fall into.
If you’ve spent any time trawling Instagram for car photos you’ll be familiar with the accounts devoted to “car spotting.” These are fun to follow because they offer something different than the usual staged photos that look all pretty but not really of the normal world we live in. It’s similar to how coming across a supercar in normal traffic is more exciting than seeing it lined up next to five copies of itself at a show. Paul McKenzie’s Instagram page is sort of a middle ground between the two; he finds cars parked around LA and takes their picture, but it isn’t phone-quality photography like most spotter accounts. By taking the time to line up the shots nicely and post-processing them, his account stands above the genre.
If you’re looking for more, we’re always sharing photography from our travels and those of our friends, so pop over to the official Petrolicious Instagram page to find more quality shots and photographers to pay attention to.
We also have the Petrolicious Marketplace account—perfect for some weekend window shopping.
