Atlantan Magazine
PAINTING with LIGHT
Atlantan photographer Bill Pack shines a light on automotive design in his new book, V12 Automotive Art Volume One.
By Nate Chapnick // Photography by Bill Pack
For Bill Pack, automobiles are not just a way to get from point A to B; they’re works of art. The Atlanta resident and graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, has been photographing collector vehicles for five years, but he has been shooting food, technology and modern autos for 20 years while working in advertising in San Francisco. Now, using an innovative form of photography called painting with light, Pack brings people’s prized automotive collections to life through his stunning photographs.
“I approach cars from a design perspective; I treat these cars like a piece of artwork so that my clients can see their cars in a new light to create a piece of art that you could put in a gallery.” –BILL PACK
“I approach cars from a design perspective; I treat these cars like a piece of artwork so that my clients can see their cars in a new light to create a piece of art that you could put in a gallery. I like to look at the lines of a vehicle, and then I want to highlight those lines when I shoot them,” explains Pack. “What we do is have the lens open for long periods of time, and we have different lighting tools to help sculpt the car,” says Pack.
Pack travels the world to photograph car collections of the rich and famous, in some cases spending a couple days with one car just to get the perfect photograph. “Collectors often have vehicles that move in and out of their collection, and they want a great way to remember the vehicles that they have owned, so I will come in and create a coffee-table book that they can give to their friends to remember which cars have gone in and out of their collections, giving them the ability to appreciate the vehicle, even when it is no longer in their collection,” says Pack.
Now, Pack has produced a new coffee-table book, V12 Automotive Art Volume One ($85, v12.squarespace.com), bringing automotive design and art together in a 172-page tome designed by Lionel Ferreira of Ferreira Design Company. The book highlights such stunning cars as the 1972 Corvette Stingray, Jaguar XK Roadster, Maserati Mistral Spyder and the Porsche 904, all photographed using Pack’s signature painting with light style, highlighting the unique design lines of each vehicle as