Motorsport
Two distinct projects: FIA-accredited Formula 1 paddock access in Barcelona, and a night automotive campaign shoot with Aston Martin in Prague.
Motorsport work divides cleanly into two problems. One is access: getting to a place most photographers never stand, then being useful once you are there. The other is control: a car, a city, and a night in which every element is yours to arrange.
Barcelona was the first. FIA accreditation for the paddock and pit lane at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in collaboration with Formula Racer, during pre-season testing in 2020 — where the interesting material is the aerodynamic detail teams spend the winter arguing about: floor development, bargeboards, diffuser, the halo. That is not visible from a grandstand.
Prague was the opposite. Aston Martin approached me directly through social media, and the work was a three-day assignment shot at night in the Old Town with a driver operating the car and no artificial lighting in any of the public locations — the city's own architecture carrying the frame instead of a constructed set.
Neither was a grandstand job. In both cases the picture depended on being allowed somewhere — behind the garages, or into a closed square after dark — and on reading a subject that does not wait: a car on an out-lap, or a winter night with flat, even light and one chance to place it.