Garey Gomez Photographs Georgia Tech’s Mascot “The Ramblin’ Reck” and its New Permanent Home

by Lexi Taciak September 27, 2024September 16, 2024 0 Project of the Week

“Georgia Tech has had ‘The Reck’, a 1930 Ford Model A, as a mascot since the 1960’s. Up until last year, it lived out of sight in different garage spaces where maintenance was carried out. It emerged for games and special events regularly but was always put away out of sight,” architectural photographer and longtime APA friend Garey Gomez starts to share.

He continues, “Ramblin’ Reck Garage was designed by Square Feet Studio, an Atlanta-based architecture and interiors firm, as kind of a display case for The Reck and is its first permanent home. Photographing the garage was a really fun experience. There were lots of students on campus all day, and most of them were really excited to see The Reck out of the garage.

We had the doors open most of the day, and the amount of attention the car receives is incredible to see. The engineering school nominates a new driver for The Reck every year, and it’s a serious job with a lot of responsibility. Omar, the driver, was instrumental to the success of our photo shoot, and he was really great with all the fans who stopped to ask questions throughout the day.”

Garey says, “The garage also serves as a garage for maintenance, complete with a lift and all the tools and equipment needed to care for the car, and a turntable that can rotate the car to face in any direction. As a car guy, this was especially fun because I got to ride in The Reck briefly and work closely with the car as a model.”

“There were several challenges with this photoshoot, some of which had nothing to do with photography,” Garey explains. Isn’t that always how it goes!?

“There was a lot of red tape leading up to the photo shoot, which involved negotiating a location fee, outrageous insurance requirements, and a lot of coordination with campus security. Then there was the photocell system that controls the exterior lighting. We arrived before dawn only to find the photocells were not working as intended, despite planning for this shoot with the maintenance crew. But that’s not going to stop us from making the photos happen… The twilight photos were shot on a separate day, at dusk when we could have someone from the maintenance crew on hand in case the photocells acted up again (and they did!).”

When asked to delve into the specifics of his challenges on site, Garey brings to mind two photographs he made.

“There were a couple of noteworthy photography challenges that stand out for me. In [the image below], there is an engraving on the side of the building that the architect really wanted to photograph. The engraving is obviously meant to be subtle, but it became invisible to the camera in most lighting conditions. I revisited this view a few times throughout the day to see if something would make the engraving pop.

Eventually, I saw that there was a tiny sparkle to the engraving when it was front-lit, so I waited for the time of day that the shadow on the ground from the roof overhang was as small as it was going to get, and I put a 600-watt strobe behind the camera and fired it at full power aimed at the engraving, and it magically emerged. I’m pretty proud of that idea and I love how it worked out, even though it’s not a hero shot of the building.”

He goes on, “[This next shot] is another one I had to work really hard for. The lighting inside the garage doesn’t really light the car very well when it is positioned in this way on the turntable, so I had to do a couple of long exposures and paint the light on The Reck with an LED, and again a few long exposures with light painting on the outdoor furniture in the foreground.”

Garey closes things out by sharing the accolades, noting, “This project is the recipient of two awards so far: 2024 AIA Georgia’s Design Award of Honor; and 2023 AIA Aspire Design Citation Award for Small Projects.”