Immortalizing classic vehicles

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2023 (1076 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She may not be behind the wheel, but she does showcase vehicles behind the lens of her Nikon, capturing everything from muscle cars to hotrods and classic collectibles.

Nicole Van Santen has a knack for photography and a love of cars that can be traced back to early memories of her dad’s 1974 Pontiac Trans Am.

“I remember, when I was really little we lived out of town, and we had a long driveway. When my dad came home for lunch, my brothers and I would run down the driveway to meet him, and he would let us take turns steering the Trans Am back up to the house,” Van Santen said.

Van Santen’s dad, John, is a self-professed car guy who laughed as he said, “I have a shop full of stuff, and none of it done.”

But he still has the Trans Am, a 1991 Cadillac that he “drives a lot,” a Comet wagon from his high school days, and four or five other collectibles that are currently under construction.

“I think you have to bring it upon the younger generation to keep the spirit of the old cars … alive,” said John Van Santen.

“I always dragged my kids to car shows, and Nicole and I have a bond, she’s a fantastic kid.”

From that early attachment to cars, came the drive to preserve memories of them through photography.

In high school, Nicole Van Santen took classes in composition, lighting, settings, “all the basics,” she said, which led to a career taking educational portraits of students from kindergarten class to post-secondary graduation.

But cars. There’s something she loves about taking pictures of cars.

“I think it’s because every vehicle is so different, and every owner will do something different to it. There’s not a lot that will look identical. I love that there are so many different cars out there,” she said.

And there is no better place to see hundreds of different types of cars in one place at one time, than Super Run. It’s the largest classic car show in Western Canada and rotates through three Prairie cities. Brandon hosted the event last summer.

Van Santen had every intention of attending and was trying to decide which of her cameras to take, when she got a call that would switch the focus from a pleasure outing to a professional gig.

“Canadian Hot Rod magazine was looking for a photographer, so I sent them some photos I had taken in the past, and they replied with some pointers on what they typically post in their magazine.”

Canadian Hot Rods is a glossy full-colour magazine that is produced in hard copy and digital format. The content consists of modified vehicles pre-1985, specifically street rods, customs, and hotrods, as well as car shows across the country.

Van Santen said she was nervous but definitely interested.

“The publisher let me know that if I was to take a photo that focused on pinstriping or something like that on the vehicle, or did something cool and artistic, that’s not at all what they were looking for. They wanted to be able to see the entire car and post that in their magazine,” she said.

She took direction well, as 19 of her photos were featured in the magazine’s December/January 2023 issue.

“It’s nice to get the recognition, especially when I can do something for the local car clubs and be in a national magazine. I don’t usually post a lot of my photos publicly, so the feedback has been great.”

In between taking photographs, Van Santen is working on a project she shares with her dad — a 1957 Pontiac Oldsmobile, which they got up and running.

There are two other trucks she has in the family shop — a Ford and a Dodge — but her day-to-day vehicle is a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a Hemi.

But Van Santen insisted her car collection is nowhere near the dozen or so cameras she has, including an old Polaroid, a film-winding Bronica, and her favourite brand, Nikon.

“I bought some of those old cameras because I wanted to see what the quality was, but for others, I think they just look neat on a shelf — other people collect cars, I collect cameras.”

And this summer, more car shows and more Kodak moments to come.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @enviromichele