Asthetics of Drift: Style Is King

Drifting is a spectator sport. Drifting should be a moving car show. The ultimate scene in which you make yourself, and your car look as cool as possible. No points systems, no paid judges, just a bunch of car nerds getting together and looking as cool as possible for their broke buddies and some fans how love the atmosphere and sport of drifting. This is what drifting is about. Most people see scenes from the movie Tokyo Drift when they think of drifting, fast cars, hot girls, high budgets, and no limits, but in reality drifting is a bunch of car nerds coming together and having a blast in some really fast cars with some really pissed off girlfriends. 

This is the essence of drifting and this is what needs to stay alive in it. So as a pretty serious drifting photographer I’d like to go over some of the things I’ve seen that would make photographing drifting better, it may seem somewhat trivial, but in reality I am one of the few outlets of drifting to the common people and you know what they say, presentation is everything.

 So to start this off we’ll go with color. This s14 is Cody Hall’s. He is a great driver and has a rad chassis to work with and I love it, but this is a black car. This is the only thing I don’t like about this car and unfortunately it is a big thing not to like about this car because it is the only thing about this car. It looks like the bat mobile out on track and if the headlights are off, it looks like a black void of blackness completely void of any light and that is terrible for photographing because photography is the art of finding light in/on your subject and this car not only is black but is also a flat black making it even worse.

So, Cody if you are reading this, please don’t be offended, simply concur with the fact that your car is hard to photograph well.

On a lighter an less sinister note some fun colors to photograph and ones that I enjoy the most are of course happy and bright colors, like yellow, orange, green, blue, teal (as a personal favorite), white and grey are okay as long as they have an accenting color to bring some more interest.

So take away from this section a want from me to see prettier cars out on track and a need for the driver to make their car as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

In addition to black cars being lame to photograph, I have a few other qualms with items I commonly see in the drifting community at grassroots levels especially. The drift slut. 

The heart of drifting is about looking cool and what in the world looks cool about a beat up, 27 different color pig nose s13 without a hood or front fenders. Here are in my opinion some of the ugliest cars I have seen driving, let alone drifting.

Now keep in mind I do understand the mission of a drift missile, to go out with your buddies on a super low budget and get as sideways as you can as much as you can and not have to worry about scratching your 2,000 paint job.

I fully understand that, and that is relevant and a fantastic argument but I have been to too many local drift events that have very very ugly cars. And these are at competitions, with spectators and photographers that care about how your car looks, not to mention how having such an ugly car reflects on the racetrack you are driving at.

So take this section with a grain of salt that I understand on test and tune days, drive your ugly car, but when it comes to competition day, please do your very best to make your car look as pretty as possible; with phat fitment, and shiny paint, and strait fenders, and clear unscratched vinyl’s and the like.

Another item I would like to mention is the fact that when drifting, I personally love it when the drivers have headlights and taillights on, yes even in the middle of the day. It makes for so much better photography… and videos for that matter. 

When it comes to photo and video, lighting is king on the high throne worshiped by all who see him. There is nothing hard about pulling that little button or flipping that little switch or twisting that little nob and potentially making the photos and videos of your car look that much better.

So pleas if for safety’s and visibilities sake alone, drift with your headlights on at all times and especially at night.

Unless of course you don’t have headlight on your ratty drift missile and simply can’t turn them on because they no longer exist. Then don’t because you can’t, I get that I wont be mad because your having a blast. But if you have them there should be little to no excuse to not have them on.

I hope some of these pictures give some good examples of how a decent photo could have become a great photo had the lights of the car been turned flipped or switched on.

The last thing is somewhat coming from a different angle then before but I feel it will end this potentially controversial post on a good note. So here are things I love to see in drifting and a few photos to help illustrate them.

I love it when cars are clearly going all out on the track, no hidden agendas, no need to withhold their car and worry about it breaking. Not only me but everyone in or out of the drifting community loves real balls to the walls drifting.

I’m talking about wall tapping, tire dropping (on occasion and in controlled environments as to keep pavement conditions top notch) close proximity, massive angle, rear entry, apex to apex lines, copious amounts of smoke.

(if you have a low horsepower car I fully understand and recognize the fact that you must drive that much harder to make up for the lack of power and still receive little gain in smoke production)….,

multiple number tandems three, four, five, seventeen members in a tandem, burnout drifts (very low speed drifts with high-speed wheel spin, and lots of smoke) super rad, and makes for awesome and moody photographs of which I have yet to really capture due to their rare nature and shy personality.

So please take this last list of drifting characteristics as a sort of checklist to make sure you are doing at every chance you get, especially when there are Blond photographers with tan Nike backpacks shooting the event you are at.

With all this having been said I am most likely forgetting a bunch of things I hate that I’ve seen in drifting, and things that I absolutely love, like the people, the community, and the undeniable sense that everyone is accepted and there for the time of their lives.

I just hope this article is a subtle and clear way to tell you some of the things I see too often in drifting that I don’t like, and just a simple reminder that things can always get better.

Thanks for the read, and happy smoking,

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo