Photography has become an indispensable medium and the car is one of its most important subjects. Photographer Hendrik Gergen tells us how a picture conveys the special fascination of a vehicle.
Hendrik Gergen has made it his mission to capture life through the camera lens. He has already staged many of Mercedes-AMG’s automotive dreams and conveyed the brand's Luxury Performance in pictures. Through this wealth of experience, he has developed a special eye for the intricacies of a motor-centric shoot. We wanted to know from him: What makes the AMG brand unique as a photo subject? What distinguishes the perfect photo? And above all, how does working with a car model differ from a human model?
It doesn't take long to answer the last question: "Both have their own unique appeal, and that comes from the individual advantages and disadvantages in working with the subjects," Gergen says. It's a balance between control and spontaneity: "The good thing about a subject is that I can determine exactly what it should and shouldn't do. The complete picture is thus in my hands. I arrange and put everything together exactly the way I need and think it should be." The price Gergen pays for this control is extra effort. This extra effort does not exist with living, breathing subjects. "Here it's mainly about the mood on the set; you have to make sure everyone feels comfortable. A car doesn't mind, but a person has to feel that they can be themselves. After that, it's all about timing. The rest is coincidence," Gergen says. When asked what he prefers, he replies, "Interestingly enough, I tend to lose patience with still objects more than with people. I'm mostly drawn to dynamics and interaction."
Special vehicles, however, can break their static and develop their own personality when set in motion. Cars like a Mercedes-AMG: "The nice thing about AMG shoots is that the cars are on the move," Gergen says. This transforms rigid objects into something alive and combines these two ways of working in a very natural way.
But Gergen's fascination with AMG stems largely from the brand's history: "For me, AMG can be compared to a high-performance athlete. The brand had a goal, started modestly, and was able to secure its place on the podium in the industry through quality and sportsmanship." Capturing this story is what makes his work so multifaceted and interesting. "As a photographer, you have the great privilege of being able to immerse yourself in worlds. I get to be a guest in backdrops that others often only dream of."
The company has never stopped evolving and I admire that.
Like the automotive industry, the photography industry had to evolve and find new ways of doing things. "The first really big trend change I witnessed happened 20 years ago, from analog to digital photography," says Gergen. It all became a little more "lifestylish," he says. "There was insanely elaborate production and lighting. Then all of a sudden there was the possibility to model 3D objects on the computer." This development, he says, took a foothold away from many photographers at the time. Everything was supposed to look very artificial and clean, and then there was another break in style. "As is so often the case, the trend was followed by its counter-trend. We’ve swung back to desiring the natural again: more outdoors, more movement, more life. Today, it's mostly no longer about horsepower, but about staging an attitude toward life," Gergen says. A clear technical focus has given way to artistic imagination: "Today you're allowed to photograph cars much more freely and from a wide variety of surreal perspectives, which of course makes the work more exciting for me."
Gergen also has some advice for those looking to stage their own vehicle shoot: "The car has to be clean, that goes without saying – unless you're motoring your G-Class through the jungle, in which case proudly wear every puddle," he says with a laugh. After that, he says, it's all about the right environment: "Does the light fit, do the paint and windows produce reflections that wouldn't look good in the picture?" Daytime running lamps are also a must for him. "Headlights are now an important design feature of any vehicle," he says. And lastly, he reveals the most important tip of all: "If you're photographing your car on a road, make sure you don't get run over. No, really: keep an eye on your surroundings." If you pay attention to all these points, nothing will stand in the way of a great photo of your beloved car.
If you think Gergen has been a camera enthusiast since he was a child, you're wrong. "It all really started with Photoshop," he admits with a smile. "I was always creative and then at some point I started editing other people's pictures. The post-photo process was incredibly fun for me." After a few years, it almost turned into the opposite: "I found that I can achieve a lot of the things I tinker with, like exposures or multiple exposures, during the actual shoot. The process suddenly seemed fascinating, no longer just a means to an end." So Hendrik's path led away from the computer screen and toward the camera lens.
A lot has changed in the industry since that day, and he himself has evolved as well. "In the past, I used flash for everything, added lights, exploited the sun as an additional light source," he says. Gergen sometimes worked with five or even six different flashes on a set. "At that time I was mostly in hip-hop and photographed mainly rappers." The style was also much more unnatural in the scene back then, he says.
At some point, Hendrik distanced himself from this aesthetic and, like many of his colleagues, learned to appreciate the beauty of natural lighting. "I started using fewer artificial light sources," he says. This has simplified a lot of things: "Now I go out with the camera and look at what's there. How does it look when I place the object on the wall? How does the light fall when the person faces the window? Artificial light sources today are mostly just for me to underscore a natural mood."
If you want to talk about photography today, you can't avoid the biggest marketplace for photos: social media. Social networks have fundamentally changed our relationship with images. Our interview partner agrees: "Nowadays, of course, social media is omnipresent. Technology has given everyone the ability to take a good photo of themselves and publish it." These platforms also follow a general trend in photography. "The moment Polaroid made a comeback, people adopted raw, real and gritty aesthetics on Instagram," Gergen says. Filters for more naturalness are a thoroughly paradoxical concept – but a successful one.
In his private life, Gergen mostly uses social media for inspiration: "Of course, social media has also produced some great photographers, so I see it as an opportunity for photography. Anyone can take a nice snapshot and post it. Even at a photo shoot, if you pull the trigger 10,000 times, there's bound to be a good picture," he says.
But he has never seen the platforms as a professional threat. Gergen explains what distinguishes a professional from an amateur: "You can recognize a professional by the reliability of the results. A pro can deliver images according precisely to a customer's briefing." For him, professionalism in photography is about the guarantee to capture a desired emotion within a given timeframe. "Being able to take good photos is the basic requirement. Everything beyond that distinguishes a real photographer." This includes, for example, sensitivity in dealing with time pressure or with difficult personalities on the set. For Gergen, the ability to improvise in unexpected situations and recognize unintended motifs are also important criteria that distinguish a professional.
For most of us, though, achieving the desired results isn't as easy as Gergen makes it out to be. So we ask him: What characterizes a great photo? "The basics are natural light, angles, illumination, and composition." That's how a picture looks pleasing, nice to look at, technically clean and good – but also a little boring. "A really good photo triggers an emotion in you, it attracts you magnetically. You stick with it, it speaks to you as an individual," he adds. And that, of course, is completely subjective: "For some, it's just wallpaper on their phone, or a cute cat portrait in the bathroom," he says with a laugh. "For my part, I'm thrilled by the dynamism and momentum that you often experience on shoots with AMG, and I think you see that in every photo I take."
Indeed you do. In every pixel.
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Exclusively for you, as a member of the AMG Private Lounge: 8 tips from a professional photographer on how to put your AMG in the perfect light.
