Cars brought down to size

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33611, 13 August 1974, Page 14

Cars brought down to size

Cars in advertising photographs in the United States have begun to assume more realistic proportions since the “truth in advertising” campaign. Their length has reduced, but they still seem low off the ground. Mr Richard Atamian, one of America’s foremost commercial photographers, in Christchurch to lecture at the New Zealand Professional Photographers’ Association, said yesterday that before the campaign the proportions of cars in advertising photographs could be accentuated by using special lenses. "You can’t do that now, but you can still put sandbags in the boot and under the hood to bring the car closer to the ground,” he said. Mr Atamian is a director of Bradford, La Riviere, Inc., which provides advertising photographs for a number of large American companies, including General Motors. “The best time to photograph a car is just before sunrise or after sunset. The light then softens the cars. In the daytime the light is too harsh.” The question “How does New Zealand photography compare with that in the United States” elicited a mixed reply. “The two commercial studios I have visited in Christchurch produce work which is as good as any in the United States. But portrait photography does noti seem to be as good. I won’t] say anything more than that —l’m at this convention for another four days.” Mr Atamian believes that it is essential for a commercial photographer to have had design training. A few years ago, he said, a photographer could start out without this training but it would be extremely difficult now. The increasing use of colour has resulted in problems in the use of black-and-white photography for young photographers who have had little experience of the older medium.

"In an exhibition I judged recently in the United States, I noticed that the black-and-white section was not as good as the colour.”

Mr Atamian began his career just before the war after graduating with an arts degree. He served as an antisubmarine pilot during the war and then began work with his present firm. He is a member of the board of governors of the American Society of Photographers, and one of 40 members of the Camera Craftsmen of America Society.

He hopes to spend some time touring New Zealand after the convention, photographing scenery. Mr Atamian uses a Rolleiflex camera, a Hasselblad, and the new Polaroid SX-70. “I think you will find professional photographers using ;he instant camera more and more in their work. It is very handy for composing shots, and letting an art director see how a scene looks in a photograph.”