december 12, 2017 - Porsche

Stefan Bogner - Tarantino style

What sparked your interest in taking photographs of beautiful curves and making them into your own magazine?

It was actually pretty simple: I used to create travel guides with my design agency. And I’m a bit of a petrol head. This may sound a bit strange to some people, but for over 15 years my method of relaxation has been driving into the mountains with my friends: We choose a route, get on the road, enjoy some good food and do some hiking – we have a lot of fun.

And you got the idea for your magazine on one of these trips?

Exactly. I stopped at a mountain pass in South Tyrol and thought to myself: Why is there no decent literature on this topic? I then asked myself: What would it look like if Sofia Coppola and Quentin Tarantino were to take a road trip together? How would it look on film; what would the mood be like with this scenery? The answer was clear to me: endless vastness! After all, ideally you want the road all to yourself, but then again the road belongs to everyone: car drivers as well as motorcyclists and cyclists.

So do you have entire roads blocked off during your photo shoots?

No, definitely not! It was important to me to transform all aspects of my idea into a reality. And that is why I invested my own money right at the beginning, rather than looking for a publisher. I also taught myself photography because I wanted to get the true feeling of a road trip. I wanted the images to look different to photos captured by a professional with a tripod and masses of equipment. My photos are still spontaneous now: To help with this I travel in the off season, in spring and autumn, when there is never really anything going on in the morning and in the late afternoon.

Once you have chosen a route, how exactly does the photo shoot tour unfold?

It’s really simple: I generally travel with my best friend, and we are never on the road for more than 14 days. We leave it to the very last minute to decide on the exact route. Then we drive, stop, get out of the car, perhaps climb uphill for around 20 metres, take some photos and get back in the car again.

And how exactly do you find the most beautiful curves on your trips?

Well, certainly not with a sat nav as it would be more likely to send you through a tunnel than through the mountains. I now get most of my insider’s tips and recommendations pretty much daily via email from friends and readers. They tell me about routes in Abruzzo, Scotland, Iceland and anywhere else you can think of. I’m not worried about running out of material any time soon: the whole world is a road trip.