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Chris DeLorenzo is on a hunt. The 30-year-old Grayton Beach resident stalks his way around ’70s muscle cars looking for light, looking for color, looking for treasure.

That’s how he describes his fine art approach to photographing automobiles at a drag strip in North Florida, a personal project that produces works of art he sells individually—and hopefully a coffee table book in the future.

DeLorenzo has balanced his love for photography and his love for cars from a young age. Growing up in New Jersey, he first thought he wanted to design cars. “I would sketch out new models and mail them to car brands like Lexus and Scion,” he says. He later moved to California after high school to fulfill an urge to become a surf photographer.

Photos by Chris DeLorenzo

In California, DeLorenzo got his first exposure to working on a crew shooting advertising photography that featured cars. His work quickly advanced, and now, he is in demand for his own work with brands like Toyota, Chevrolet, GMC, Honda, Mazda, and Lexus.

His advertising work has taken him across the United States and to Canada, Spain, and a two-week shoot for Toyota in Vietnam. 

He made his first visit to 30A in 2018, and by 2020, he knew he wanted to call it home. 

His advertising work keeps him busy, but DeLorenzo is starting to move his work into a fine art direction, offering large prints to collectors.

“I kind of feel almost like a painter in a sense when I’m capturing the image,” he says. On the computer, he uses his fascination and technical prowess with color to give the raw images a vintage film look. “That is the part that brings it to life for me,” he adds.

Q: How do you describe what you do to someone seeing your work for the first time?

A: At its core, everything I create is about making things that didn’t exist before. I’ve always loved building worlds, whether that’s through simplified color palettes, atmosphere, or moments that feel suspended in time. I’m not interested in just capturing what’s there; I want to shape it into something more intentional, more beautiful.

Q: Where did that instinct to create come from?

A: I used to draw and sketch cars constantly as a kid. I just loved making things. I remember being 9 years old, sitting in the back of a car, looking out at architecture or cars, and thinking how cool it would be to say, “I made that.” That desire never really left; it just evolved.

Q: Why cars?

A: Design, utility, soul. I’ve always been fascinated by them.

Q: Why the ocean?

A: The ocean is constantly changing, and it’s never the same twice. That fleeting nature fascinates me. I’m not trying to capture what it looks like so much as what it feels like: the movement, the energy, the contrast between chaos and calm. It’s like trying to hold onto a piece of time.

Photos by Chris DeLorenzo

Q: Do you approach your fine art photography differently than you do your commercial work?

A: Both yes and no. Fine art, for me, is my truest form of what’s in my mind becoming real—no team, no clients, just making art that feels truest, art that moves me, and art that explores what I’m fascinated with. There is a great deal of overlap, however, in the technical [elements] and in the edits. Both areas inform the other.

Q: How would you describe your style of photography?

A: Lush, energetic, timeless, mysterious. My goal is to create worlds: places you can step into, feel, and experience. If my work makes the world feel even slightly more beautiful, then I think I’ve done my job.

Q: Do you have a most memorable shoot?

A: [Commercially,] It was a project for the new TRD Pro Toyotas on a two-week trip through Vietnam. Hanging out of helicopters, exploring the muddiest “roads” I’ve ever seen, and fully immersing [myself] in the culture. For fine art, it would be documenting underwater waves in Tahiti for a film that showed at Digital Graffiti in Alys Beach.