Creating intimacy in a gargantuan space – Mercedes Benz World
Set within the famous Brooklands motor racing circuit in Surrey, Mercedes Benz World is a huge venue with three-floors of exhibits and attractions that bills itself as ‘the perfect day out for the whole family’. It also functions as a car showroom where you can test drive some of Mercedes’ finest vehicles and push your driving skills to the limit on a thrilling ‘handling’ circuit.
The venue itself can only be described in one way: vast. The client wanted the photos for promoting the venue for hire, so asked us to capture the space and its potential. This posed a problem: how do you make such a huge empty space (we were on-site when it was closed to the public) compelling? That’s something we’ve encountered numerous times before, and we’ve learnt a few tricks along the way.
Without a subject or a focal point, the venue just ends up looking like a huge, empty, gargantuan space. Knowing how to use the lines of sight is crucial.
It’s all about having a reason for the photo. Without a subject or a focal point, the venue just ends up looking like a huge, empty, gargantuan space. Knowing how to use the lines of sight is crucial, and we took a lot of time to identify locations and angles that helped us convey warmth and familiarity. We also heavily experimented with depth of field to create the sense of intimacy the client wanted, and to make it look like a venue you would want to hold an event in.
The resulting photos did the job splendidly, so much so that many are now in the Mercedes official magazine and even went onto billboards for a national campaign.
