Ferrari - 30yrs in china
A year full of motorsports! After documenting a racing weekend for my close friend and race car driver Jeremy, shooting Formula 1 Grand Prix last summer, it is time to shoot for Ferrari! To celebrate its 30th anniversary in China, the iconic Italian brand held a big event on the South Bund in Shanghai and launched a special edition of their Ferrari Roma car.
For this event, I was hired by a photographers’ agency called SpektrumAsia (Same as the previous shoots for Porsche). They contacted me to work for Ferrari in the summer of 2021 for the first time. After the shoot being cancelled twice, they called me again in December, but it got cancelled again… In February they finally had a confirmation on the date. But by then, I had planned a two-week trip in Laos and just booked my ticket half an hour before the call. I had to cut my trip short to come back to Shanghai on time. However, after almost a year of trying, I am very happy we made it happen! Shooting for such an iconic brand is always exciting!
The venue had an outdoor and interior area. At the entrance, everyone would go first through a tunnel with some historic dates and photos of Ferrari. And then they would see many collection cars displayed outside. The cars looked particularly stunning at sunset with soft, warm light that made their color and design pop. Then the guests would go inside the building to register. After a bit of mingling and cocktail, the main hall was opened for the dinner party.
I always love shooting luxury events like this because everything is well designed and meant to look premium. There were a couple of performances and speeches during the dinner. Some speakers came especially for the occasions including Ferrari President of Great China, the first Ferrari owner in China and Roma concept car designer, etc.
Some local celebrities were also invited to participate in the event, and we had to be aware of their arrival times to be sure to capture some nice PR photos of them.
One of the most impressive parts of the event was a retrospective of Ferrari’s cars during the 30 years from 1992 to 2022. For each decade, they had a few cars driving around the dinner tables. Shooting the cars was quite challenging as we needed to stick only to certain angles to get the most flattering shot of the cars. Color is another big challenge because the light show was always changing. It is very difficult to keep the whole series consistent and stay true to Ferrari red. But this was more for the live editors to worry about!
In event photography, you have to always be on your toes. You need to capture the fast movement, the little moments and the subtle expressions. It can be very difficult to catch if you're not used to it or if you're not positioned/equipped properly. But this is also the reason why I love shooting events. There are a lot of things happening at the same time. You can play around with the light, the screen, the products and the room. You can really have a lot of diversity in your photos and look for creative angles all the time. There is ALWAYS something to create.
It was exciting to have a team and shoot alongside other photographers. I was working with Mathias from France, Charlie from China (who hired us all) and Matjaz from Slovenia. Photography can sometimes be a very solitary job. But for an event like this, having a team was especially rewarding. Shooting alongside these experienced photographers whom I really admire and consider friends was really cool! Thanks to Charlie/SpektrumAsia for having me on the team!
