Voth with Nick Meek
VOTH
A series of six images created by Nick Meek and Recom Farmhouse. Shot on location in Morocco, CGI Maserati added in London. This project was made possible by the kind courtesy of the Voth Foundation.
Take a look behind the scenes
Join us in Morocco on the location shoot, and in London for the CGI and retouching, in this video:
Photographer Nick Meek and Recom Farmhouse’s Christoph Bolten travelled together to Hannsjörg Voth’s extraordinary desert land art installations in Morocco: Himmelstreppe, Goldene Spirale and Stadt des Orion.
With a profound respect for Voth’s original vision, they envisioned innovative elements that would both honour his intention and contribute to the immersive experience offered by these extraordinary desert works.
During a series of dawn shoots, Nick Meek and Christoph Bolten engaged in thought-provoking conversations about how their imagery of the structures could evolve, exploring ideas that would preserve the integrity of Voth’s vision while pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.
Developing ideas and possibilities of augmenting the beauty and impact of Voth’s creations, the Maserati concept car in gold was the outcome. The smooth angles and precise lines of the car juxtaposed against the otherworldly environment of the sculptures form a vignette of adventure, a fragment of a story that’s still to be told.
TECHNICAL PROCESS: FULL CGI WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND
Nick shot on Kodak Portra 400 film with a Gibellini ACN45v2 camera, custom made for him, giving us great references to re-create that beautiful filmic look.
While on set we captured plenty of HDR domes with a LizardQ rig, enabling us to seamlessly integrate CG objects into the backplate photos with accurate lighting and reflections.
In Recom Farmhouse’s London studio, CGI artist Anna Toropova gathered reference to perfect the golden car, and worked closely with Nick to position it – here’s a glimpse behind the scenes of her R&D:
With the render passes completed from Anna, retoucher Kate Brown started to composite the car.
The wintery desert light, in combination with the golden car paint, provided her with a solid foundation for creating the desired look, and a realistic bloom and film grain.
Retoucher Kate Brown:
“Initial grading work began in Capture One before the retouching had even started, to get the very best out of the image. Having all the different passes for the car gives us the most flexibility to enhance the car and make it fully embedded into the shot, making sure the colours match to the environment, so the car shape is enhanced without feeling over retouched.
Meticulous care was taken to create and enhance beautiful glows and pings on the car from the sun. making it shine like a piece of jewellery in the shot.
Before the start a project we try to study the photography as close as possible to understand how to make the CGI feel as photographic as possible. Imperfections of photography like lens aberrations, flares, blooms from highlights and grain are incredibly important to make something feel photographic.”
See all the images on our site here, or contact us to see our book “Slice”, featuring the Voth images.
Photographer & concept:
Nick Meek
Post Production: Recom Farmhouse
Creative Supervision:
Christoph Bolten
CGI Artist:
Anna Toropova
Post Artist:
Kate Brown
Very special thanks to the Voth Foundation
