The Ford Motor Company - IAA Motor Show, Frankfurt

September 21, 2017

New work for The Ford Motor Company, the world’s 5th largest car maker, for the IAA in Frankfurt, the world’s largest motor show.

I had a wonderful commission to produce the images for Ford’s stand at the IAA Motor Show in Frankfurt, the world's largest auto show. The brief was to tell people stories by real Ford experts underlining Ford’s commitment to excellence. The portraits present a selection of Ford of Germany employees, printed on huge 6 meter tall columns and shown on the the very large LED screen at the motor show. The scrolling LED screen images would show 4 or 5 frames capturing a moment in time of the employee at their workplace.

We spent three days at Ford's factory in Cologne (Niehl and Merkenich) photographing the eight employees that would be used for the portraits and landscape images. The visit was fascinating and included shooting inside Ford's top secret design centre, at the head office buildings and also inside the factory on the production line. We photographed Wolfgang Kopplin (Managing Director of Ford Germany), Christoff Kellerwessel (Global Chief Engineer, Electronics Systems Engineering), Ernst Reim (Chief Designer, Interior Design), Sonja Vandenberk (Chief Designer, Colour and Materials) and other engineers and Ford workers.

It will get a lot of coverage... considering that almost a million people will be visiting the show.

I'm feeling very grateful and must thank the awesome team at Imagination in London for giving me the commission. Thank you James, Graeme and Greg for the wonderful collaboration. It was a complete pleasure!

Gregg is an awarding winning photographer that has shot campaigns for the likes of The Ford Motor Company.

Scrolling LED Screens capturing a moment in time. IAA 2017 Motor Show, Frankfurt. The Ford Motor Company.

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Is this the future of Media?

May 4, 2017

Billboards, 'Point of Sale' Banners, Video Images and Postcards plus BTS videos from a recent multi-media advertising campaign for Der MedienCAMPUS.

The client used the imagery for Medientagen Munich, the largest media congress in Europe. Germany's chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel opened the congress and called for greater transparency from the likes of Facebook and Google, with regards to their algorithms and use and evaluation of user data, which is very interesting considering that Google is potentially facing a fine of more than €1bn for abusing its dominance in search.

It was a great collaboration with the art director and I was given free rein to come up with the concepts and lighting style for the imagery. The key brief was to make the images look edgy and contrast traditional concepts.

The end product was a Billboard campaign, 'Point of Sale' Banners at the Medientagen, Video Images that were broadcast at McDonald's restaurants, a Postcards campaign and BTS videos and imagery.

Initial ideas for my lighting plan....

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Gregg Thorne Photographer Muenchen advertising Award Winning

Congratulations from Graphis - Photography Annual 2017 - Silver Winner!

March 30, 2017

I recently received an email from Graphis Inc. notifying me that I am a Silver Winner in the Portrait Category of their 2017 Photographic competition and will be featured in the Photography Annual 2017.

"Congratulations! Your entry has been selected as a Silver winner in Photography Annual 2017! View your entries and the competition results here: Photography Annual 2017".

My winning entry can be seen here: www.graphis.com/entry

Graphis annually invites professionals across the design communities to be considered for inclusion in their books. Amongst these submissions, Graphis selects the most compelling work of the year for Platinum, Gold and Silver awards considerations, which are featured in hardcover Annuals.

Graphis Inc. is an international publisher of books on communication design. Based in New York City, Graphis presents and promotes the best submitted work in graphic design, advertising, photography and art/illustration. Graphis was founded in 1944. Graphis publishes hardcover Annuals including: Graphis Design Annual, Graphis Advertising Annual, Graphis Photography Annual, Graphis Annual Reports Annual, and Graphis Poster Annual.

This is fantastic recognition for my project on Education, Inspire to Learn, and how Education can enable you to have a rewarding and successful career. I aim to illustrate that it is possible when you have access to good education, when you apply yourself and study and work hard, that you can realise your dreams. This is still an ongoing project and can be seen here - www.greggfoto.com/portfolio/#/inspire-to-learn/

Here are a few of the images:

Graphis Silver Winner Gregg Thorne, Muenchen, Advertising, Portrait

Coincidently, I have just returned from South Africa where I have been continuing my related project on Education in South Africa (or lack thereof..)."

Education in South Africa is a disgrace: according to the World Economic Forum a few years ago, South Africa ranked 132nd out of 144 countries for its primary education and 143rd in science and maths. After 21 years of full democracy, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. How can SA move on and address high rates of unemployment, radical inequality and an unacceptable level of violent crime and corruption when the education system is failing the youth so badly?

Here are the the portraits focusing on education in South Africa - www.greggfoto.com/portfolio/#/quiet/

and here are the stories highlighting the difficulties that students face trying to complete their studies, that go with these portraits - www.greggfoto.com/zastories

Run Munich - Get out and do it

January 5, 2017

Run Munich - Get out and do it. This is the start of a series of running in and around Munich. Thank you very much Marlen for getting up early and being so patient on a sub zero morning.

Cantiere Ernesto Riva.

December 16, 2016

Daniele Riva. 6th Generation master craftsmen since 1771. Wooden boat builders and restoration from Laglio, Lake Como. www.barcheriva.it

Editorial Piazza Shoot

August 11, 2016

A special thank to the great team that helped produce this shoot and to everyone for waking up at 3:30am for a sunrise shoot!!

Model: Margherita

MUA and Hair: Francesca Mamone www.francescamamone.com

Stylist: Chiara Pedersoli

Shooting permission & permits: Laura from the Film Commission in Brescia

Assistants: Antonio, Andrea and Chiara

Private Equity Magazine

July 29, 2016

The new edition of Private Equity magazine for the annual Munich Private Equity Conference (MUPET). The magazine comments on the latest developments in Private Equity from Germany and abroad. This is the third year that I have been involved with this magazine and the second year that I have had sole responsibility of producing all the imagery for the magazine. Robert Doppelbauer was my second shooter to help cover the event. The magazine has been renamed to Private Equity and has been wonderfully designed by the talented Lutz Widmaier, the award-winning designer at schmidwidmaier design agency. The project was once again expertly managed by Sophie von Klot at Sophie Boning Communications. It is always great collaborating with very talented people and this was no exception. The magazine can be viewed here.

Giro d'Italia - Two days with the tour in the beautiful Dolomites

May 24, 2016

It's always special visiting one of the Grand Tours and I couldn't have been happier when the Giro came past my backyard in the Südtirol (a few hours drive from Munich). I have spent a lot of time in Val Gardena and the surrounding areas of the Dolomites and it really is paradise for cyclists and skiers. My press pass was confirmed on Friday night and I was in the car and on my way very early Saturday morning to cover the Queen stage (210 Km and over 5,000m of climbing) which finished in Corvara. Sunday's stage was the individual TT in Castelrotto and I chose to focus on the riders warming up before the race. Steven Kruijswijk finished second in Corvara and made up enough time to take the coveted pink jersey.

Photo Editors

May 10, 2016

It's always a lot of fun and very interesting meeting photo editors and the Condé Nast group has some of the very best. Wonderful meetings with "Myself" and only a few weeks after meeting with AD Architectural Digest. Vanity Fair would be the ultimate! Wired Magazine would be pretty cool too.

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The fisherman's wife

March 22, 2016

I spend a lot of time in Cape Town and along the coast and I really wanted to create an image showing the wild and beautiful coastline that we have. I also wanted a story connecting people to the sea. I had found an old fishing rowing boat (the Wafra) with a memorial to six fishermen that drowned, when it ran into difficulties in rough seas. I did some research and came across some wonderful paintings by Winslow Homer of fishermens’ wives waiting for their husbands to return from the sea and I wanted to somehow illustrate the hard and dangerous lives of these fishermen and their families. The six seagulls in the photo represent the six fishermen that went down with the Wafra. Model: Yolande. Assistants: Monty & Stephen. Wardrobe: Carolynn

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Matthew Day. Klein Constantia's winemaker.

Klein Constantia's Winemaker - Matthew Day

March 16, 2016

I had the pleasure of photographing Matthew Day, the winemaker at Klein Constantia.

Klein Constantia dates back to 1685 and has been described as one of the world’s most beautiful wine estates. They produce some of South Africa’s top wines, including one of the world’s best natural sweet wines, Vin de Constance, which is made from vine-dried Muscat de Frontignan grapes.

The wine has an interesting history and was a favourite of Napoleon while in he was exile in St Helena. Jane Austen and Charles Dickens both mentioned Constantia’s wines in their writings, and in Charles Baudelaire's (Les fleurs du mal) poem XXVI entitled sed non satiata Baudelaire compares the charms of his beloved to the pleasures of the night and Constantia wine.: “Even more than Constantia, than opium, than Nuits, I prefer the elixer of your mouth, where love performs its slow dance.”

It is wonderful to experience a place with such history and heritage and to be able to photograph the chief winemaker who has the responsibility of continuing to produce such excellent wines as the Vin de Constance. Matthew understands the significance of this history and is thriving in his role.

I love Constantia too and my father used to live just down the road on Strawberry Lane, opposite what used to be the Old Cape Farm Stall. I remember it like yesterday and I have some of the fondest memories from my childhood from those times.

Matthew is a great guy and I had spent an afternoon with him driving all over the vineyards scouting for the best. Matthew actually drives up here occasionally on his quad bike early in the morning before starting his day, to soak in the incredible beauty of the Constantia valley and Klein Constantia. It’s heaven being up there when the sky starts lightening up and the first sun rays of the day arrive over the distant mountains. The vineyards come to life and it’s magic!

I must also thank Jacqueline, Klein Constantia’s Marketing manager, who drove me around the farm in their 4x4 and helped tremendously coordinating the whole shoot. Craig Harris, the viticulturist, was very kind and generous with his time too, driving the Jeep up the mountain for us before sunrise.

The shoot.

I spent a lot of time scouting the vineyards to find this spot, which is what I had envisaged for the shoot. I had also noticed, on a previous visit to the farm, that they had a wonderful vintage Jeep, which would be a perfect prop for the shot. My idea was for Matthew to be up on the mountain amongst the vineyards at sunrise enjoying a moment by himself, before starting his day. I wanted the sunrise to rake across the vineyards below with its beautiful warm early morning light and give the landscape some beautiful texture and dimension.

Unfortunately on the day of the shoot Mother Nature was not cooperating at all and it was a very cloudy morning. To make matters worse, there was a lot of smoke on the horizon because of a veld fire up the West coast. Cancelling and rescheduling the shoot was not an option because this is Matthew’s busiest time of the year and they were mid-way through their harvest. I also had two assistants booked and we had arranged for the vintage Jeep to be up on location at 5:30 am and Matt was due to arrive at 6:15 for the 6:25 sunrise.

Here is a photo with Stephanie and Anton, my assistants, taken after we packed up after the shoot. The light is not very inspiring at all!

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Finding solutions… quickly.

The show had to go on and we had to use what we had. I decided that all I could do was to shoot Matthew and the Jeep, fake the sun with a strobe (and colour corrected gels). The beautiful background and sky would have to wait for another day.

Fortunately I travel with one of my Profoto 1200w battery packs and I rented a second unit just in case I needed to fake the sunrise, which ended up being the case. Matthew was there, the Jeep had been delivered to the top of the vineyards before sunrise and my team had been up waiting at the farmstead since 5:15am. We had to produce something very good! The shoot went incredibly well and probably lasted no more than about 45 minutes. All that was missing was the beautiful landscape which I would have to come back and shoot another day. I made all the necessary notes about my setups and was confident that we could still pull it all together, even though I was flying back to Munich the next week. I ended up waiting about four days until the weather eventually opened up and I was blessed with the magic sunrise that I had envisaged for the shot.

I am very happy with the results and the final image really captures the mood, tone, feel and beauty that I was after. It's a wonderful portrait of Matt in his element.

Francesco Lamon

January 6, 2016

Francesco is a member of the Italian national track cycling team. I had the pleasure of photographing the Italian national track team during their three day training camp at the Fassa Bartolo velodrome in Montichiari. A special thank you to their head coach, Marco Villa, for being so hospitable and allowing me access to the riders.

Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Superman!!!

As reported on the BBC - “Italy break world record to win team pursuit gold: The quartet of Simone Consonni, Filippo Ganna, Francesco Lamon and Jonathan Milan beat Denmark to gold in three minutes 42.032 seconds.“ “Italy broke their own world record to be crowned men's team pursuit Olympic champions for the first time in 61 years at Tokyo 2020.“

Marco Villa - Head coach of the Italian national track cycling team.

January 2, 2016

I had the pleasure of photographing the Italian national track team during their three day training camp at the Fassa Bartolo velodrome in Montichiari. A special thank you to their head coach, Marco Villa, for being so hospitable and allowing access to the riders. Marco has an incredible track record and is a two times world champion and Olympic medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Davide Cassani - Head coach of the Italian national cycling squad.

January 1, 2016

It was an honour to meet Davide Cassani at the indoor cycling track in Montichiari, Italy. Davide was kind enough to introduce me to Marco Villa, the Italian national track cycling coach. Unfortunately Davide wasn't there the day after when I brought some decent lighting along, to photograph the Italian national track team during their three day training camp.

Tessuti Milani dal 1588

December 24, 2015

When I took this portrait I asked Giorgio to think about his business that has been in his family since 1588 and that it will no longer exist when he retires. Due to changes in the industry he will be the last generation of his family to run this business.

It was wonderful spending a morning with Giorgio in his shop. When I was testing my lighting Giorgio stood there patiently and said that he didn't like posing with his hands doing nothing. He wanted to feel his fabrics and touch the cloth. That is where his passion is and that is what he told me.

Inspire to learn: The portraits

December 9, 2015

I can finally start sharing the portraits that I have been taking for my "Inspire to learn" project. These portraits are of people that have a passion for what they do. They have been kind enough to share their educational experiences that have helped them to get to the position where they are able to do what they love to do, for a living. This is a follow on to my project looking at the challenges children face trying to get a decent education at schools in South Africa. I want to try and inspire people to take their education seriously and to study hard with the aim of achieving their dreams, whatever that might be. Here are the first portraits.. More images and stories to follow: http://www.greggfoto.com/portfolio/#/inspire-to-learn/