Story

Soul Versus A.I.

January 25, 2024

With a flood of A.I. imagery in media and art we turn back to imperfect, analog technology, to touch the heart.

Fascination with technology, whether digital or analog and mechanical, is at the heart of a creative visual-artist. With this I mean filmmakers, photographers, cinematographers and graphic designers rather than fine artist such as painters that can do with just a brush, a canvas and paint.

From the beginning of my career in this field, I was particularly fascinated when I could figure out how to use new emerging technology, NOT as intended, but in an unconventional and unusual way. For example back in the 1990s “snorkel” or “periscope” lenses were a big thing and used for macro tabletop photography.

At that time we produced a lot of music videos and had great fun putting such a lens on a hand-held camera to shoot an extreme-closeup of a guitar solo. Nobody had put a snorkel on a hand-held camera before. The result was heavy metal music video art.

Recently I noticed that our director of photography, Joe DeSalvo, posted a bunch of beautiful portrait-shots on his Instagram account, mentioning the use of his Hasselblad camera. This made me think about how this particular iconic camera could be utilized to produce car content (since Joe is one of the country’s foremost automotive cinematographer). And, as if we were reading each other’s mind, Joe emailed me and said: “Hey Alexander, we should shoot some cars with the Hasselblad.” Well, he did not had to asked twice.

Joe (above) told me that he had inherited two Hasselblad cameras including some lenses from his late father, who was also a gifted, professional photographer. This equipment was produced and bought by his dad back in the 1960s.

But technology moves on and while the basic iconic Hasselblad 500 series has not changed much in well over half a century (yes, it is that good), the Hasselblad company has now developed a so called “digital back.” Meaning; that box-cube that usually attaches to the back of the Hasselblad 500, to transport the film, can now be replaced with a digital unit that records the images as (rather large) files. Naturally, Joe had already acquired such a “digital back.”

Our conceptual idea was this: What if we shoot vintage cars with vintage camera equipment but combine it with this cutting-edge technology “digital back,” so we can further subtly manipulate the images in postproduction and have a variety of ways to print or reproduce it.

Doing my research-homework, I learned that this specific camera was mostly used for either nature or portrait photography. The results of my Google image-search for “Hasselblad & cars” was rather waiver-thin and un-inspiring. For me this was the perfect result and motivation to exactly try that out.

Our good friend Nat Mundy, who runs HK MOTORCARS, a high-end car dealership based in Westchester’s Mount Kisco, representing very exclusive marques such as Glickenhaus, Superleggera, Zagato etc., as well as trading in rare vintage cars, was kind enough to let us use his workshop (in the dead of the cold winter) and offered us to play with any of the cars we fancied.

Well, we fancied his 115-year old sixteen and a half liter Lorraine-Dietrich. The “McLaren F1” of 1909. At the time this was the worlds fastest car and it kept that title (just like the McLaren F1) for more than a decade. We filmed this awesome car going around Lime Rock Park last fall, here:

Its gigantic 4-cylinder engine produces 200hp at a ridiculously low 1200rpm. Which means that this car pulls away in any gear, at any speed, even in today’s traffic – well over a century later. Talking about sustainability! One could possibly even call this brass-era beast the very first super-car, as it can take off from a stoplight with spinning tires, burn-out style.

To our knowledge, there are only two in existence today, including this car. Though, for full disclosure: this Edwardian Grand Prix car has not survived in one piece.

The car featured here has been carefully reassembled from a group of Lorraine-Dietrich components, including the complex 4-speed racing transaxle, which were collected over the course of 30 years by the very dedicated artisan restorer Richard Scaldwell. The first parts of this car were found in 1987 with the purchase of a rolling Lorraine-Dietrich chassis, with the “ST190” registration number.

But the artistry and craftsmanship on this car is just over the top. It looks like it was driven all the way through the century and never restored – completely genuine, as you can see in the pictures. A true racing sculpture – what an incredible artistic achievement. If you need a car that guaranties admission to any of the global top automotive concourse events – this is it! (Hint: It is currently for sale.)

There is just so much to discover on, in and around this motorcar. All those details presented the ideal object to experiment with the Hasselblad’s super-high resolution and ultra-shallow depth of field, coming through its 60-year old mechanical body and lens, only to be immortalized by its digital computer attachment. What a joy to look at these images on a large HD monitor. But what an even bigger joy to look at them as exhibition size prints, hanging on the wall!

I always love the chance to use equipment different than intended. This way you get an opportunity to create something new and hopefully innovative, even when you look back in time (as in our case). There is a soul-fullness to these pictures – using imperfect technology (vintage camera & lenses) to capture imperfect technology (a century old historic car) that no A.I. can ever achieve. A.I. cannot pull your heart strings like this.

For full effect (and in line with the analog spirit) we work with our trusted New York City art-photography printer, to produce large scale custom print collages of the finest quality. The emotional effect these unique art pieces have on you – once you stand in front of them – is difficult to describe. But it is beyond what this article and the picture on the screen can convey.

We just enjoyed the whole process so much. It is very satisfying that based on these tests you see here, a few discerning collectors have come forward and approached us about creating similar large format collage pieces for some of their exceptional cars. If you are interested in the same, you can reach out to us info@davidisfilm.com and we will discuss with you how we go about the process in great detail, for your historic car. (Below a sample collage.)

As soon as the weather gets better we will be out with the Hasselblad and the old Cayenne camera-car, taking (car-to-car) driving shots as well. Stay tuned. The fun never ends…