BASTIAAN WOUDT CAPTURED WHAT THE NEW PORSCHE CAYENNE ELECTRIC FEELS LIKE
words by FRANCESCO PIZZUTI
Bastiaan Woudt belongs to that rare category of photographers whose visual language goes beyond the object they’re capturing; whether it is a face, a body, a landscape, a shadow on a wall, it all becomes part of their own unique universe. His black-and-white photographs, instantly recognisable for their striking minimalism, architectural compositions, and sculptural use of light, have long transformed people into shapes, gestures and textures that transcend the human form. Now, for the first time, he has turned that gaze towards a car.
The subject is the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, which, in Woudt's hands, becomes something closer to an abstraction, a collection of lines and movements that seem to drift between material presence and abstraction. Rather than photographing the Cayenne Electric as an object to be minutely documented or explained, he decides to give it character, the same way he does with his portraits.
He doesn’t follow the usual guidelines of automotive photography: the familiar close-ups on the details, the mountain roads, the dramatic coastal highway, the hyperclarity — forget all of that. In the quiet of his studio, all that survives is light, shadow and form, and his ability to play with them.
It is a decision that feels entirely consistent with his wider body of work. Throughout his career, which has seen his images entering the collections of institutions including the Rijksmuseum and the Getty Museum, Woudt has shown a fascination with the subtle tension that exists between movement and stillness, clarity and obscurity, presence and absence.
That same sensibility runs through this series. At times, the Porsche appears with incredible precision, every curve rendered in sharp contrast. Moments later, it blurs, dissolving into movement, becoming little more than a streak of light and shadow moving through the frame. The images create the strange impression that the vehicle is simultaneously standing still and escaping from view. Woudt knows the Cayenne Electric needs no introduction. He doesn’t want to show us what the car looks like; we already know that. He takes the recognizability of it and visualises the sensation of it, the energy; how the car feels.
This creates images that are refreshing for a brand of this scope. Porsche’s relationship with art, design, and photography stretches back decades, but here it is portrayed through a totally different lens, prioritising atmosphere over statistics, emotion over technicalities, and in the hands of Bastiaan Woudt, this feels more than enough.
