James Haefner: General Motors Duo

Architectural and automotive photographer, James Haefner, has been finding lately that his architecture work has been of great interest to his automotive clients. His architecture experience was especially key in being awarded two projects from General Motors, one for the GMC Acadia (Leo Burnett) and one for the Chevrolet Bolt (Commonwealth)—both involving architectural structures in the backdrop. Both projects called for James’s photos to be the first official product photos, so in addition to housing structures that exhibited great design, the locations needed to be secure from the prying eyes of the public.

Here’s the GMC Acadia, recently redesigned to be slightly smaller and sleeker than the previous model: 

For the GMC Acadia, the campaign called for images of the car in four different locations across the country. To maintain the security of the car, the car remained at a secure GM facility, with James shooting the car first, and then traveling to shoot the backgrounds in Atlanta, Savannah, South Carolina, and Northern California.

Working this way assures that the product’s identity will not be compromised. It also generally creates images that celebrate the car’s design since we can position the vehicle for the optimum light and control what reflections we see in the sheetmetal.

The preproduction for the GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Bolt was quite extensive, as they both required close coordination with location scouts all over the country. And because both projects were closed launches, meaning that all images of the vehicle were embargoed until the release of James’s photos, the security at each location was extra important. With the Chevrolet Bolt being photographed on location (unlike the Acadia), they had to have GM security go to each location and assess the security of the venues.

Here’s the Chevrolet Bolt, an all new vehicle that GM built in conjunction with Korea’s LG Corporation:

James says that the level of security at closed launches like these is extremely important, and it’s amazing the extent to which people will try to uncover the exclusive designs of these vehicles. During the Chevrolet Bolt shoot, a spy photographer—a photographer who’s goal is to find where and when the new cars will be photographed and get images themselves—was actually able to position himself high in the hills and get images of the car to leak online. With high stakes projects like these, there is always this risk.

In the end, James knocked out some beautiful automotive photos with some beautiful architectural backgrounds. The Chevrolet and GMC projects have both been received extremely well, and James says that having the chance to combine both of his interests was a great opportunity and a lot of fun for him. 

To view more of James’s work, visit jameshaefner.com.

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