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Lots of gearheads dream of writing for a car magazine, but what about the folks who dream of taking photos for a car magazine? The world of professional automotive media photography is small and exclusive, and Brandon Lim, a past MotorTrend staffer and current freelance photographer, is one of the folks who made it to the upper echelons. We asked Lim about how he got started and how he developed his unique style.
“I got my dad’s genes,” Lim told MotorTrend. “He’s a creative type, always had cameras around. My brothers, they all got the smart genes. They all got science degrees. I thought, ‘OK, I have none of that,’ so I picked up a camera. None of my family are car people, but I always had a collection of cars. I think ‘cars’ was maybe my first or second word. I went out to all the car shows with a camera, combining the two and getting soaked up in that world.”
For Lim, as for many of us, car photography was a hobby, and he didn’t think it would ever advance beyond that.
“I never took [car photography] seriously until after college,” he said. “I kind of let that fire die out. I never thought I could actually make money unless I was a wedding photographer, but someone at college sat me down and said, ‘That’s not true, you can do what you want.’ I messaged [MT staff photographer] Robin Trajano. I wanted to get coffee, and I had no idea he worked for MotorTrend. He brought me along for SUV of the Year as an assistant, cleaning cars. After half a year of cleaning cars, I started shooting cars [as a freelancer] for MotorTrend, then I was an intern, and then a staff photographer. Fast-forward six years later, now here I am.”
Finding a Voice
Obviously, we here at MotorTrend have a bias; having worked with Lim for many years, we love him and love his work. Like all of MT’s photographers, he does fantastic work that adheres to (and influences) MotorTrend’s style. But we also enjoy his non-MT work, which—despite Lim’s constant cheeriness—has a darker edge. How did he develop that look, we asked?
“A lot of it was experimenting, just shooting what I thought looked cool, always looking forward to the next thing, how I could improve and how it could look a little different,” Lim said. “For the longest time, almost until now, I’ve never really been proud of my work. I’ve always thought there could be tweaks, and I’ve always had this idea of where I want it to be. It took a long time for me to develop that style.”
We asked Lim if he’s happy with his photography now. “I think so,” he said. “It really took a long time. I think a lot of it was repetition, and that’s why I loved working for MotorTrend. You put in so many hours, you realize what works and what doesn’t, and you’re able to narrow the focus of your voice, your style. You start to shape your voice because it becomes repeatable in that way. I feel comfortable in my own style now, and I feel comfortable sharing it and expressing it, whereas before I was just trying to copy whatever I liked and find my voice. You find people you look up to, you emulate, and after a while you make that into your own voice. I think my voice is a collection of everyone I’ve always looked up to, adding my own little flavor to it.
“I don’t know if it’s the same for writers, but when photographers see other work, most of us can tell who shot it based on the composition, the way they framed it, the tonal editing,” Lim went on. “You can tell whose voice it is, because they all have that distinct style. It doesn’t matter how they shoot or how big the production value was on that particular show. You can pick five shoots, and there’s always this same style, this same kind of ethic, the same set of rules, like the same flavor note across five dishes of food. They all link, they all have this connection to each other in terms of visual storytelling.”
Working in Camera
In the pre-digital-photography days, most car photography was shot on slide film, which presented little to no opportunity for editing after the shot was taken; everything had to be done in-camera. Today, digital offers more opportunities for post-processing, but for Lim, those old ways are best.
“Most of what I try to shoot is in-camera, because of the nature of how I was raised to shoot,” he said. “The editorial background taught me that you take what you’re given, [and] you make the most of it. What I learned with MotorTrend is to try to maximize the interesting, because you’re not always given the greatest backdrop. You’re not always given the sunset. You have to be creative. If the light’s not good, you play with composition. If the composition’s not good, you light it a certain way. You learn so many things when you are put in these boxes of constraints. It forces you to be better at what you do, to be more resourceful and really push yourself creatively outside of your limitations. You use every tool you have to make the frame as interesting as possible. There’s not a lot of time and energy you can spend on the post-processing side, so a lot of it is making the frame as close to the finished product, in your mind, as you can.
“Even in my more moody, dark work, I try to get as close to my vision as I can in-camera. I would love to do more studio shoots, more experimental looks, play with more colors, more lights, but the nature of the work, when it’s run-and-gun, you just have to get what you get and make the most of it. That’s how I developed my look, especially that dark style. Just try to make it as visually interesting as [I] can with the environment.”
‘Don’t Overcomplicate It, Don’t Lose Sight’
We asked Lim what guidance he would give to folks who want to follow in his footsteps. Lim told us, “My best advice would be to not overcomplicate it. Just keep the passion alive. Shoot what you want to shoot, shoot what’s interesting to you, and try not to shoot for other people, especially if it’s a hobby.”
Now that he’s an accomplished pro, does Lim still photograph for fun? Yes—in fact, he sees doing photography for himself as a critical element of a successful career.
“Yeah, I try to do that all the time, to remind myself why I’m doing this in the first place, to not lose sight. I don’t want to look back and forget why I started in the first place. It’s tough, especially when you do it as a job. All the lines are blurred between your work life and personal life, so I think making that distinction and shooting for myself only is a great reminder why I started in the first place.
“Even though I do it mainly as a job, I still try to be the kid I was when I first started and keep that childlike energy in my work. I try to just have fun with it. At the end of the day, it’s not that serious. It’s taking pictures of cars.”
