Automotive Photography: Collecting Evidence Since the Internal Combustion Engine

Automotive photography is a curious hobby.

It begins innocently enough. You attend a local car show with a camera and promise yourself you’ll only take a few pictures.

Three hundred photographs later, you’re lying on damp tarmac trying to find the perfect angle of a 1967 Mustang while wondering if your knees will ever function normally again.

Car shows are the natural habitat of the automotive photographer.

Thousands of pounds worth of polished metal stand gleaming in the sun while their owners hover nearby like protective parents on the first day of school.

“Please don’t touch it.”

As if I was planning to.

I merely wish to photograph it, edit it, upload it, and then spend several hours wondering whether the reflections on the bonnet have ruined the shot.

Sometimes the best opportunities appear completely by accident.

You’ll be walking through an ordinary supermarket car park when, like a rare migratory bird, a beautifully restored classic car appears between a Nissan Juke and a shopping trolley with a faulty wheel.

Suddenly you’re pretending not to be excited.

The owner catches you staring.

You catch them watching you stare.

An awkward conversation begins.

Five minutes later you’re discussing carburettors despite knowing absolutely nothing about carburettors.

Then there are the owners who actively seek you out.

Every photographer knows the type.

They approach with a smile and proudly announce:

“Would you mind taking some pictures of my pride and joy?”

What follows is not merely a photo session.

It is a guided tour.

You’ll learn where the vehicle was found, how many years it took to restore, why that particular bolt came from Belgium, and how the owner’s spouse has not spoken to them properly since the restoration began.

You nod politely while secretly taking mental notes for Lightroom.

The truth is that automotive photography isn’t really about cars.

It’s about people.

The memories they’ve preserved.

The stories they’ve collected.

And the extraordinary lengths they’ll go to justify spending the equivalent of a small house deposit on an engine that occasionally starts when asked.

My job is simply to document the evidence.

Before the rain arrives.

Before the crowd gathers.

And before the owner notices a fingerprint on the paintwork and suffers a mild cardiac event.

“Some people collect classic cars. I collect photographs of classic cars. One of these hobbies is considerably cheaper. Not much cheaper, but cheaper.”