5 Instagrammers Worth Following: January 5th Edition

For the first Instagram roundup of the new year (happy that, by the way!) I've got an especially good group to share. I'm sure some of you are already well aware of a few of the folks below, but there are some smaller players included to make sure there's something fresh to look at instead of the clock ticking towards the weekend. It's easy to look for car photos on Instagram and come away feeling like you're just finding pages that repost the same shots over and over again, but there is plenty of originality to be found among the sludge of low-quality phone shots and people "aggregating" (read: stealing) the work of others. If you appreciate the ones that are doing it the right way, here's a batch that exemplify it.





Vincent Martin and Jonathan Cence make up the photographic duo behind CM Arte, and their Instagram feed is sort of like the modern version of that poster of thedream garage with "Justification for Higher Education" printed above the the cliffside digs. Of course, the shots in here aren't faked, and the cars are also of a much higher caliber than a C4 Vette and droptop E30. So the content is the best around, and the photography itself is crisp and popping with colors that are just enhanced enough to not step past the line of overdone. There's a mix of static shots at meets and other events, rolling photography out in the "wild," and plenty of different perspectives to go around, and just about all of it is poster-worthy.





Paul Johnson is one of the best photographers I've come across when it comes to post-processing. He's seemingly mastered the styles of more than one photographer, with nostalgic warmth and tasteful sepia sharing space in his portfolio with some of the most captivating, super-high-contrast black & whites out there. It's just a bonus then that he happens to like shooting cars then. The most fun pages to look through are those that don't discriminate (at some point, the same unobtainable cars over and over and over again does get tiring), so you'll find a range spanning VW Beetles to Jaguar D-Types, Chevelles to GT40s.





Jimmy Ban's collection of auto and moto shots on Instagram is full of dark, almost sultry scenes of custom cars and bikes, mostly shot in profile. It's all extremelyrich . Sort of like the photographic equivalent of triple chocolate cake with a syrupy maraschino cherries on top—only you won't be sick of it after the second taste. If you like custom cafe racers, airbrushed lowriders on Daytons, salt flat attackers, and plenty of American iron mixed in with the occasional Euro supercar, this is a good place to kill the last few minutes of the workday.





Connor Lopes doesn't shoot the most exotic cars out there (though you'll find a handful of those if you dig), but he has a great eye for capturing the qualities of the humbler variety of transport. Personally, I love the group that includes Volvo 240s and W123 Mercs, but even if you aren't of the boxy sedan persuasion I think you'll find this page worth a peek anyway. Perhaps it's sappy—it is—but there's a sense of authenticity in these photos that never translates into F40s parked in front of chateaus. Connor's page is like flipping back through your high school yearbook in a way, but instead of people you'd rather avoid at the reunion it's full of the cars we wish we could skip class to go do donuts and other things in the parking lot.



Kristian Haagen is a watch collector, author, and photographer who I'm guessing anyone interested in the subject is already aware of. If you're the kind of person who hasn't memorized the reference numbers for every Speedmaster out there, but are still interested in the world of watches, it's a great entry point to start building up a little knowledge. He features a nice blend of icons and novelties, from decades passed and the current catalogs of the revered names like Patek Philippe and Jaeger-LeCoultre.



If you aren't sated yet, catch up with us on Instagram as well to see more Petrolicious photography shot by our staff and our friends around the globe.