Rangefinder Magazine
February 2006

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Back to the Future Claude Jodoin
A Visit With the General Motors Photography Department

Overhead large studio view of original prototype that influenced the design of the production Corvette Stingray for many years

As I pull up to the security gate and look to my right, the first thing I notice is a large futuristic Silver Dome in General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

As I walk around the Dome, a large, glass-faced European Art Nouveau building comes into view. Completed in 1956, it was designed with a Nordic touch by Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero, world-renowned architects of their time. At the opening, the sign read “Gateway to the Future.” Harley Earl and Alfred Sloan conceived of the project as a closed college campus to provide a creative environment for future products. It was created around post-WWII vehicle sizes, using proportional 15-foot glass windows as an “Industrial Versailles” of its time. This building houses GM’s automotive design talent, the photographic department, and all support personnel. It also has an amazing outdoor viewing yard with 9-foot walls surrounded by trees. It’s larger than a football field and has several large motorized turntables so any vehicle can be rotated and photographed with natural light.

Glamour shot of the several GM production vehicles in the “patio” viewing yard under natural light, with a clear view of the Dome in the background

Upon entering, I realize there’s no way my Canon 1D Mark II is going to make it past security. After clipping on my visitor’s badge, I am led into the inner sanctum by the enthusiastic Jeff Thorpe. Every door requires a pass code or card swipe. Understandably, this is a highly restricted area.

Once inside, I see large, impressive photographs of cars and more cars at every turn—old, new, production, racing, prototype, etc. Full-size real and real-looking prototype and production vehicles are parked in the huge hallways. Among them are various glamour shots on display using some high-end modular mounts of metal and plexiglas that seem to reflect the architectural mood of the building. After the usual twists and turns around stairs and halls, I get to a private office and conference room where I am greeted warmly by their illustrious leader Brian “BB” Baker, my host for this interview.

The same patio, 50 years ago

Claude Jodoin: tell me a little about your photographic team.

Brian Baker: Our diversified group comprises male, female, young and old from different origins. We employ four full-time principal photographers and three photo assistants. We have three retouchers, two photo archivists and two people in the lab. We try to retouch only 10% of our work. The rest is just good lens and lighting work. We also have five people on our video crew. About three years ago we added a three-person “Supersize Image” team in our repro department. With our various HP 5000-series printers, they create large posters and double-wide, full-scale images of cars and trucks for management to examine in detail.

GM’s remote studio in Stage 3 with assistant painting the cove to the desired tone

An assistant readies one of the many hot lights used for car shots with Canon cameras

Meanwhile, back at the office, hundreds of image files from a typical day’s shooting are processed and prepped on Apple Cinema displays for internal viewing and presentations to the decision makers in the company.

CJ: Why HP printers instead of Epsons, which are more popular in the photo community?

BB: We find the photo quality of Epsons superior to HP. However, we can get 30-inch-wide color prints from our RA-4 laser printers in our lab. The HPs’ output is good enough for our purposes, but more importantly, we need the faster speed of the HPs.

CJ: This seems like a very cool job, how did you come to be here?

BB: My appointment as head of this group was an acknowledgement, on the part of GM management, that photography is an essential part of the design process. The GM photographic group has been laboring behind closed doors for about 50 years. The first 25 as design team documentation of progress, the last 25 including more “glamour shots” of cars. Having turned to full digital capture only a few years ago, they are now being featured more prominently with gallery showings of their creative photographic talents. They represent works of art within a work of art (the building itself).

As GM nears its 100th birthday in 2008, the creativity of its photography department is allowed to flourish as never before. We have evolved from skilled photography practitioners to esteemed artists. In 2004 we gave our photographers full access to one-of-akind vehicles and historic properties, which are the only ones allowed to be seen by the general public. We turned them loose and let them create. We will be publishing a coffee table book of period photography of our state-ofthe- art stuff. There are over 1800 cars in GM’s collection, including old cars, both production and prototypes, so it’s taking a while.

CJ: So this is being done in addition to your daily duties?

BB: Yes. We still have to turn around our output of basic views of a car in 24 hours. We also do weekly documentation of the design team progress on clay prototypes. All of this has been heavily impacted by our decision to use full digital capture in the last three years. One of our biggest challenges, however, is to scan and maintain tens of thousands of yet unscanned negatives in several climate-controlled rooms. So, basically our mission is two-fold: To preserve the past and to document the future. We have evolved from Buck Rogers concepts of the ’50s. Working on a captive corporate photo team means a steady flow of work. We don’t have to worry about a bidding process. The greater stability means we can concentrate on being creative. Since our photographers have a steady gig, they have the freedom to take more risks as artists do. We still have to be diplomatic and mindful of design personalities, since people can be fussy and defensive about “their baby” and how it’s photographed. We design and develop new cars about three to six years out, so what’s on the street today started at the turn of the millennium.

Overhead large studio view of original prototype that influenced the design of the production Corvette Stingray for many years

CJ: So what is a typical day for your photography team?

BB: The design studio calls our central hotline with their request. It could be a studio shot in our internal studios, or we could be taking one of our motorized equipment carts to an internal location. They request everything from closeups of single component details to full interior or exterior views. We maintain space in a large rental studio a short distance from here when we need full exterior views with studio lighting, rather than using our patio or the Dome. One of the key elements for photography of cars are the Dome, which is only open to the public one day per year to feature young, upcoming car designers masquerading as college kids. (Author’s note: I made it a point to attend. and was properly impressed.) Our patio has turntables with six inches of rise, which facilitates shots that are low to the ground. This also helps us to control reflections. Sometimes they request that a model be taken to the studio so we can better highlight the interiors. Sometimes we have to take action shots at racetracks or attend industry events like the International Auto Show openings.

CJ: What kind of equipment do you use?

BB: We have Broncolor flash systems. Each cart has a complete lighting kit with softboxes, reflectors, etc. It’s a self-contained portable studio that we can move around the building. We have to be flexible. Most of our daily work is done with full-frame Canon 1Ds DSLRs; all of our staff photographers have them with a full array of L-series lenses. We can make very large prints from those cameras. They have adequate resolution for most of our needs. If we need more (very rare), we can shoot large format and scan or use different camera technologies.

CJ: Could you tell me more about your Virtual Viewing studio?

BB: Let me take you there now.

CJ: We walk into a large room with comfortable seating, and I’m treated to the most mind-blowing 3D virtual reality images I have ever seen. After putting on synchronized cross-polarization viewing glasses, an actual size projection of a 2005 Hummer 2 appears before me (they are not allowed to show prototypes to the public). It is rotated and shows all of the natural reflections of the outdoor patio in its chrome. I can almost reach out and touch it! The computer operator swaps out different grille and headlight options instantly, along with different vehicle colors, all the while rotating 360 degrees. The three 8x20-foot screens are set up like half of a hexagon. The projectors are either 2400x1024-pixel DLPs or 8- megapixel CRTs, which is the same resolution as a Star Wars digital movie. So I ask what is the purpose of all this?

BB: Most of our management decisions about the trim pieces and looks for future vehicles are decided in this room. It is the most realistic way for us to quickly show proposed variances and changes during the design phase of a vehicle.

After a tour of their galleries, I bid farewell to my hosts. As I walk out into the real world I notice some “zebra cars” driving around. Jeff Thorpe informs me that it’s all about camouflaging the details of their test vehicles since there are “automotive paparazzi” that get in planes and try to get sellable shots of the prototypes. Industrial espionage is serious stuff in the automotive world. Their secrecy is taken as seriously as the quality of their photographs.

For me this was quite a learning experience and I consider myself privileged to have seen it.