Daily Drivers
1986 Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2.
1999 Toyota GT-ONE (TS020).
Everyone tells us that print is dead. That still imagery is dead. But we are in a renaissance. A time of appreciation. Appreciation for high-quality meticulous innovative art. Alex Bernstein – photographer and director – explained to me that if you want to survive in the art world, you must keep evolving creativity. If you want to keep working, ‘you have to just stay creative.’
Born and raised in New York, Alex always loved cars. But he never really knew what career path he wanted. He tried psychology – pulled the brakes. Mechanical engineering – pulled the brakes.
It wasn’t until he got his wisdom teeth removed that he finally decided what 9-5 job was right for him. His dad handed him a copy of 0-60 magazine. Flipping through the pages, he landed on a Lamborghini Murciélago in the chromatic deserts of Dubai. Loving the way the sand whipped around the tyres and the stark contrast of the yellow of the sand and the yellow of the car, he was enthralled – and he was as high as a bloody kite. But it was etched in his brain.
‘That became my instant goal of, OK I’m going to work for a car magazine, so I could play with cars and shoot them and write them’.
As luck would have it, Alex knew the publisher of 0-60. So, he began an internship
1990 Jaguar XJR-12.
1967 Ferrari 330 P4.
there.
Graduating from college, he was promoted to editorial assistant.
Alex said: ‘publishing was a pretty rigid world back then … you were either a shooter or a writer.’ But he wanted both. One day, the photographer he was assisting got the call to shoot some crazy 911s. But it was a big client and they didn't have much of a budget. So, the editor decided that they needed someone who could do everything – Alex said: ‘This is me, man, this is my chance.’
The client was RAUH-WELT. And no magazine had written a piece on it, yet. But they weren’t 100% sure if the article was going to happen. The editor told Alex, ‘keep your phone on and I’ll let you know tomorrow’. At 6am, he got a call from the editor: ‘Alright, you’re on a 2:30 flight to Tokyo. What kind of gear do you need?' And I was like 'Holy shit!'
Eventually, Alex became the senior editor and photographer for 0-60, as well as the sibling magazine RIDE.
Unfortunately, in 2012, they pulled the plug on 0-60. So, time to return to zero and reach Alex’s new potential. The editor from a European Car Magazine contacted Alex, asking for him to shoot in California. Alex was asked ‘what is it going to take to get you here?’. He laughed when he told me his reply – ‘not a lot!’
Alex told him a number, the editor said 'no'. But Alex went, anyway. He worked for the magazine for two years, becoming the senior editor and photographer. And, making a name for himself, marketing agencies began contacting Alex. This made him see his next goal: advertising.
‘I think [advertising] is the cream of the
2003 Bentley Speed 8.
crop for what I was doing there.’
Not knowing anything, he put together a portfolio. Searching for a representative he found the perfect one just down the street, Anderson Hopkins. And they’ve been working together ever since.
Again, it was time to re-evolve, reinspire and restart. Alex had done a few Computergenerated Imagery (CGI) projects, but he had no idea what he was doing.
He said: ‘The digital world is crazy. I’m not super in love with it, but it became obvious I’m going to miss out on certain jobs, if I don’t have anything to show.’ Creating a partnership with Recom Farmhouse, he began to learn and enjoy CGI. He became obsessed with ‘how real can you make it? How chewed up can we make the tyres? Can we add wiper marks on the glass?’ Recom Farmhouse is overfilled with car enthusiasts.
Alex and the team pondered: ‘What if you were walking through New York City and, having your camera with you, you see a rally car in the financial district – I think it would be mind-blowing. I wanted to feel that in the images. So, no hero angles. I wanted it to feel like a surprise. Or maybe a little voyeuristic.’
So, for one day, Alex ran around New York City taking 2000 photos. Searching through each photo, they found the perfect homes to house some legendary cars. Every line, every smudge of the cars are CGI – hours upon hours of meticulous work for Recom. And some of the most iconic photos were born. They were called the ‘Daily Drivers’. I asked Alex when he was going to release more. Sadly, the project is currently on the back-burn. But he hopes version two will be coming out soon.