Spy Photography or for the masses, taking photographs of the cars in testing, isn’t the easiest of jobs in the world. It’s all a hard life and for those who breathe cars Hans. G. Lehmann isn’t an unfamiliar name. The man runs one of the top Car Spy Shots Agencies in the world, Lehmann Photo Syndication.

Read the man talk himself, in the first ever interview of a top-end Spy Photographer, describing how he came across the idea of capturing car prototypes.

He is arrested, has faced the heat and hidden behind the snow-clad stones waiting for that perfect moment to capture those masterpieces with his prying lenses.

Read how he sees the future of those vouching for this profession, a stern message for all those who believe it’s a piece of cake, it ain’t boys, as always, money is the driving force.

How did this Idea of being an Auto Paparazzi Hit You?

Having grown up in Wolfsburg-Germany where Volkswagen is located, I developed an interest in cars early and happened to occasionally notice test cars being driven openly in the area. I became a freelance press photographer in Hamburg working for magazines and daily papers doing all sorts of jobs, as well as for record companies making studio record covers and on-stage photos of all sorts of rock stars. While visiting my family in Wolfsburg I some day happened to come across a strange VW prototype, took photos and offered them to a big Illustrated magazine in Hamburg. They bought the photos on the spot at a good price. That’s what gave me the idea.

All this happened gradually over some years, I still continued to do my normal photo assignments and jobs, it was never a sudden decision to become a car spy, it just developed into doing more cars than anything else at the end.

How does a normal day begin for an auto paparazzi, are you people aware of the models to be captured or does it all happen randomly?

Trying to catch prototypes testing somewhere in the world requires traveling all the time, they don’t park at ones door step at home. One always needs some information or at least an idea about where the new cars are likely to being tested. You don’t travel somewhere just at random - unless you want to spend money for nothing. Over the years one gets to know where to go - many place are rather popular meanwhile. As important is the enormous amount of patience and cold blood required before one finally gets the photos. Hunting prototypes is mainly waiting in a most uncomfortable environment like the freezing cold near
the Artic circle in Scandinavia or the heat of the Californian desert . If need be for days, waiting for those now or never split seconds when the car speeds past - ideally to get it as front-side, side and rear-side view.

Death Valley isn’t the easiest of places to be with your lenses so is there any kind of special preparation involved for the unit which captures the cars in testing there?

As for Death Valley - I have been spending several months there every summer for years and years. You get used to the heat, you even come to like the desert and the beautiful but scary landscape and the yet existing wildlife. You can shoot beautiful photos, sunsets, dust storms, flashfloods, rattlesnakes, coyotes...but you have to make money by catching prototypes instead. Cameras and computers must be protected at all times from the ever-present dust and sand, they must not overheat - like oneself, as a matter of fact. You need sun protection cream, always carry drinking water, and wear a hat against sunstroke and boots so you get no snakebites when hiding behind a rock in the middle of nowhere - waiting for the prototype to drive by - and so on.

The Car Manufacturers are obviously against this act of yours, so how do you take care of that aspect?

Car manufacturers try to prevent us from getting photos - in particular if it is a car that replaces a model, which is still in the dealer ships to be sold. They disguise the prototypes so that hardly anything can be recognized, or - when driving on public roads - they protect the test car by having guard cars close in front and behind the secret model. These protection cars will block the prototype from as many angles as possible once a photographers’ lens is being spotted. Sometimes the drivers get really angry and throw rocks at you or shout obscenities.

When a manufacturer has a prototype of an all-new car, which will not replace any current model, we feel that sometimes he likes the free publicity through our early photos (nobody will ever admit that).

What is tough is to capture those cars within a split second before those engineers see you, meaning that there are risks involved. Gives us a briefing about those risks you face.

We always try NOT to be seen by the drivers, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. One has to be real quick, seconds to take the right photo - one can pass by the test group on the road - if possible - drive ahead very fast and wait somewhere for them to come by - but mostly they will have noticed you by then and they will block the prototype - see answer 4.

Any personal incident you remember that got you in trouble while capturing those numerous cars you’ve captured until date?

Years ago back in France I got arrested by the police when I tried to
get prototype photos of a new French model. The village police officer chained me to the radiator in his little office while he was making phone calls trying to check my ID. Finally my press ID convinced him and he had to let me go - I had not trespassed - I had been on a public road alright trying too shoot over the fence - but the guards of the proving grounds had alerted the police to put me on hold for a little while.
Also in my early days as a car ’spy’ I got arrested in Algeria together with a co-photographer for ‘espionage’ and spent a night in a nasty oasis- prison. That was when we tried - and got -photos of a new Audi, but it was no fun at all.
BMW, Volkswagen, Rover and Porsche tried several times to take legal action against us for industrial espionage, too. Police showed up with a search warrant in our office - but all of them had to row back - we had not done anything illegal. Unfortunately, we had to pay our lawyers ourselves, which was a little fortune.

This is know a recognized act thus even the car manufacturers are aware of you people being around whilst testing so are hidden cams used or its just a daring act that requires you to jump on any given opportunity?

We never used hidden remote control cameras.

The trends about cars have changed, as the world seems to go bizarre about smaller cars, so for our readers, give us a name of few, which they should wait for?

As for the small cars - the new Smart, the Fiat 500, Opel Agila, Suzuki Splash and Mazda 2 are already available. Perhaps the VW up is worth waiting.

How do you see the future of Auto Paparazzi’s, any suggestions for the budding ones?

If anybody wants to make a living from those photos nowadays, he will need a lot of money to pay for all the traveling out of his own pocket. Travel expenses are sky high, a top quality and fast camera is a must (no cell phone photos...) , and the growing competition does not sleep either. The fast internet makes it impossible to have a good scoop as an exclusive for long. Once posted the photos are ‘old’ and for the slow print media not worth a big fee anymore. That used to be a lot different not too long ago. Most likely, there will be just two or three professional photo-agencies left in the future who can afford to stay in business - the rest will remain the occasional blogger who happens to stumble into a test crew by chance and is happy to see his pictures with his name on the web- for free, that is.

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