Commercial/advertising photographic archive

[Nas]

A professional photographer I worked for sadly passed away this year. He worked on commercial and advertising work. I’ve been helping his wife sort through some of his things. He did a lot of work for car advertising (I’m guessing from the 80s to early 2000s) before moving to architecture on digital. His wife has sent many boxes of his transparencies and printed material to a motoring museum but there were two boxes full of 5x4 negs and transparencies marked “old negs don’t keep”. Of course I couldn’t resist saving them from the bin. I’ve only just scratched the surface of looking through but it’s a trip back through time. I’m guessing a lot of what I’ve looked through so far is from the 80s. Some transparencies are from the 90s. Along with cars there are product shots (anyone remember Dyson floppy disks?), room sets of furniture, fancy desks, cigarette lighters, all sorts.
Something I’ve found fascinating is a camera rig used for tracking shots of cars. The arm bolted to the vehicle must be substantial to support a 5x4 monorail camera. I don’t know how the shutter was tripped.

 

[Matt Bigwood]

Those camera rigs are very clever, the car is only travelling at about 10mph but the slow shutter speed makes it look as if it is travelling much faster. BTW, that Honda Civic looks like it is mid to late 90s, my dad had a similar one at the time.

 

[Nas]

Those camera rigs are very clever, the car is only travelling at about 10mph but the slow shutter speed makes it look as if it is travelling much faster. BTW, that Honda Civic looks like it is mid to late 90s, my dad had a similar one at the time.

Thanks. The transparency shots do appear to be late 90s cars. A lot more neg shots from earlier, Volvo and Rover.

 

[Nas]

Digitisation of the OED in the 1990s.

 

[Dave_P]

This is great stuff

 

[Nas]

Rover Vitesse adverstising, circa early 90s. Note the background was hand painted on the back wall of the cove, the floor was also painted.I like the detail of the chequered pattern on the heels in the first shot.

 

[Nas]

I don't know what this was advertising. Quite a detailed set. Product labels seem to be deliberately obscured.

 

[David M]

My understanding is that there is another vehicle towing the subject vehicle and both camera and photographer are mounted on that.

 

[Nas]

My understanding is that there is another vehicle towing the subject vehicle and both camera and photographer are mounted on that.

According to a photographer friend of mine who’s used the rig, the camera is mounted on the end without a towing vehicle. This makes sense because in the red Civic shot above, the towing vehicle would be against the crash barrier and the purple civic is going around a corner.
Here’s another.

 

[Dave_P]

I assume they then have a retoucher on staff to Photoshop the rig out of the drum scan?

 

[Nas]

Here’s a blog explaining how it’s done with smaller digital cameras.

The Long and the Short of Automotive Rig Photography | Harniman Photographer

blog.harniman.com