Right in the middle of the action: a Jaguar XJ 272 — a car whose only neutral feature is its paintwork. And that's why a Jaguar cannot be photographed just like any other car. “Assignments like this really are something special,” Eggers quite readily admits, although he himself is no raw beginner when it comes to photographing luxury cars. Quite an few top car manufacturers use his services.
Eggers was provided with the essential facts about the Jaguar assignment at a briefing with the Agfa Advertising Department and the McCann-Erickson agency. “Above all it had to be a fantastic photo,” Eggers recalls. “Apart from that I was given an absolutely free rein.”
It was by no means, a coincidence that the advertising campaign for Agfa Signum should centre on a luxury car: the intention behind the campaign was to imply an analogy between Agfa Signum and another high-ranking, well established product. The choice fell on the Jaguar — not least on account of its silver-grey finish. For “neutrality” was the keynote of the Signum campaign.
Neutralité oblige: the aristocrat among luxury cars
The Jaguar was photographed at the Staudt Studios in Leonberg, the ideal terrain for high-class car photography. It was transported by truck — after all one cannot expect an imported, handcrafted British luxury car costing its German owner almost a million to make its own way to a photo location. &ledquo;As a car, the Jaguar has a character all of its own and so it is not all that difficult to photograph,” says Eggers, who had already taken several trial shots in the Jaguar distributor's showroom in Frankfurt. And indeed it was the car's aristocratic character which was to be showm to advantage: with the emphasis on the seductive curves of its beaten aluminium bodywork, the Jaguar was bathed in light, creating an atmosphere of noble splendour. 30.000 carefully dosed watt-seconds from eight power packs were used in conjunction with two trough reflectors and several reflector screens to create exactly the right mood. The Staudt Studio's enormous scoop was painted grey. A red light underneath the car was the only element of contrast in this neutral-grey scenario.
Wolf Eggers approached the subject from many angles, whereby the overall view was the most tricky and time-consuming shot of all. Several detail shots were also required. Eggers was given three days for the job — not really enough considering the fact that the overall view took up a whole two days of expensive studio time. One camera assistant and two studio assistants were placed at his disposal. The creative support was provided by two art directors and an art buyer from the McCann agency.
Neutral greys and saturated colours
Eggers used a 8 x 10 inch studio camera loaded with Agfa Optima 125 sheet film. The negatives were later enlarged in Agfa Signum paper. This colour paper is distinguished on the one hand by its excellent rentition of neutral greys and, on the other, by its brilliant saturated colours — properties which were fully exploited for the detail shots. The balanced, neutral greys of the Jaguar's silver grey paintwork were impressively contrasted with the brilliant red tail-lights.
Despite having been pressed for time, Eggers was delighted with the end results: “After three days of shooting, we all went home with the feeling that a good job had been done.&rdquo Of course, the journey home wasn't made in the Jaguar — though it must have been difficult to part company with this aristocrat among luxury cars after having been und it's spell for three whole days ...
Bildunterschrift : It was the low clouds that finally sold German photographer Wolf Eggers (centre) and his assistants on the Cairngorms as a backdrop for their Opel advertisement.