Based in Kamloops, British Columbia, Andrew Snucins has spent close to 20 years behind the lens. He started in the early 2000s shooting rally cars in the Canadian Rally Championship, and he joined the Canadian Press in 2008. Since then, he’s been hired for high-profile international work. He has shot in sub-zero mountain passes, remote backroads, rugged terrain and every condition imaginable. Clients trust him for his speed, calm demeanor and consistency. Many of which have kept him on call for more than a decade, with clients consistently lasting fifteen years and more.
His portfolio spans editorial, commercial, industrial and sports photojournalism. But automotive photography is what feels like home. His clients include Subaru, Ford, Lexus, Dodge, GMC, Mitsubishi, Hagerty and Classic Car Adventures. Other major credits: Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar Energy, The Canadian Press, Getty Images, the International Olympic Committee and both federal and B.C. government gigs.
Andrew grew up immersed in the late ’90s and early 2000s tuner era of The Fast and the Furious. As he got older, his tastes shifted toward pre-1980s classics. Over time, his life began to revolve around it.
“I never wanted to be a photographer. It was never a goal,” he says. “I just fell into it.” It started at a rally in Calgary. A friend launching a new rally media website asked him to take a few shots. He had a camera and a working knowledge of it, his father had been a photographer in his travels so he had a basic working knowledge of the process.
During the event, he ended up assisting a stranded driver after a stage. He offered food and warmth in his truck. The driver asked to see his photos and Andrew showed him a few on the camera screen. The man paused on one image and said he wanted to buy it. Andrew laughed and said “sure I suppose.”
“That was the moment it started to snowball.” From there Andrew was asked to cover rallies across North America for the Canadian Rally Championship and Rally America (now the ARA). He left his job as a surveyor’s assistant and jumped right in.
Soon after, The Canadian Press began flying him out to shoot news stories across the country. That sealed the direction. Photojournalism quickly became his favourite kind of photography. “My entire style is built on that tradition – storytelling, minimal editing, everything as in-camera as possible. That old-school newspaper approach still defines how I shoot today.”
“Then I Married a Woman Whose Name Was Minni Cooper”
Andrew was never “a Mini guy.” “I wasn’t interested in them.” He never thought they were especially compelling cars. “Then I married a woman whose name, before she was with me, was Samantha Minnie Cooper,” Andrew says. “That was her middle name, after her grandmother. Her parents weren’t car people, so it didn’t really register for them.”
At the time, he was already shooting for Classic Car Adventures. They run driving tours across North America for owners of vintage cars. Fun, affordable events. They bring owners of all makes and marques together as one family. “It’s really the foundation of everything I do—my social media, my career. Their events are my favourite of the year. They’re the focal point of my entire professional life.”
He and Sam were still in college. Money was tight. He promised himself that if he married her, he’d buy her a classic Mini. They found one through a Classic Car Adventures participant and he made several trips to Vancouver to inspect it “Eventually, I picked it up, drove it back in secret and presented it to her.” The car was a wreck. Dead lights. Frozen brakes. A milk crate for a seat. But it represented a promise and a dream.
They scraped together $13,000 for a basic restoration. Friends in Delta with a shop offered to help. Then an unexpected surgery for their beloved dog Meelo wiped out the budget. They brought the Mini in anyway, asking the shop to do what they could and make it safe so they could drive it on the events.
It turned out to be “90 per cent Bondo. A full hack job,” Andrew admits. “The shop owner sent a video pulling the seatbelt mount out of the A-pillar with his bare hands.” And with that? “The dream of the car died.”
“That Much Love Went Into It”
Unbeknownst to the couple, Dave Hord, founder of Classic Car Adventures, heard the story. He put out a call to Lower Mainland members. “I had no idea,” Andrew insists. “They restored the car in secret.” Most weren’t professionals. But everyone knew how to wrench. Driving 1,500 kilometres through the mountains in old cars required it. They came together. They rebuilt the Mini as a thank-you for years of photography.
At a spring event in 2013, Dave asked Andrew to arrive early for a group photo. It was suspicious enough to raise a flag, as they never did pre-event group photos. Over a hundred people lined up in a parking lot. Then a yellow-and-black Mini came around the corner that he didn’t recognize, Dave threw him the keys and he realized it was his.
“It was the first time I ever cried in public – maybe the last,” Andrew says. “It’s not just our car. It’s the Classic Car Adventures car. A group of people worked around the clock to restore it, because I guess they like me?”
The Mini has been all over North America at events. “That Mini is the most meaningful thing I’ll probably ever own. I don’t think there’s a number, any number, that could buy it. That much love went into it. It’s amazing.”
Andrew may not have been a Mini guy once upon a time. But now? “I’m dyed-in-the-wool. Diehard. I’ll probably be buried in that car.”
“Freedom, Movement, Memory”
Andrew’s experience with the Mini changed how he saw cars. It changed how he photographed them. “Cars are far more than just hunks of metal and rubber. They represent something deeper – freedom, movement, memory.” To him, the automobile is transformative. Racing. Touring. Driving your kids across the country. The emotional weight of automotive passion is real.
“My journey with the Mini solidified how powerful that emotional connection can be. It’s something that spans generations. When I photograph cars now, I look for that story.”
“To the owner. To the family. To the people around it. And it’s not just about classics. Even modern cars can carry emotional weight,” Andrew says. “Sure, for some people, a car is just a way to get from A to B. But for others, it’s a conduit to freedom.” He thinks about where he lives. He could drive to Whistler on world-class backroads. Be home before dinner. A hundred years ago, that trip took a week.
“That’s what the Mini gave me.”
Andrew recently founded Meshed House Creative, working with other Automotive Photographers and Videographers to continue capturing content around the world of the machines that makes our hearts and imaginations soar.