Monopod Edition 06

MONOPOD AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, ART AND CULTURE

EDITION

Stéphane Plassart | La Dolce Vita | Jeremy Rata | The Classic Motor Hub For the Love of Petrol | Classical Gas | Motorsport in Pictures | Deuce Days | GOW! 2020

06

Front cover: Jim Clark powers his Lotus-BRM out of Oulton Park's famous Knickerbrook corner as he ploughs a rather lonely furrow in practice for the 1966 International Gold Cup. His H-16 BRM engine would soon expire and in the race he had to use an older Climax-engined machine, achieving what was charitably recorded as a 'distant' third. This image is from the book EV Starr Snaps the 60s Speed Merchants by Tim Beavis and Guy Loveridge, published by Douglas Loveridge Publications.

MONOPOD AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, ART AND CULTURE

Edition 06 Summer / 2021

/ 250

MONOPOD FIND US ONLINE monopodeditions.com instagram.com/monopodeditions SAY HELLO monopod@mail.com

EDITOR Philip Newsome EDITOR-AT-LARGE Guy Loveridge LIFESTYLE EDITOR Siobhan Owen

GRAPHIC DESIGN Images Automotives

EDITORIAL BOARD Arthur Owen Tim Beavis Teddy Yip

PUBLISHER Blue Flag Press Ltd Level 19, Two International Finance Centre 8 Finance Street Central Hong Kong Edition 06 Summer 2021

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine, no responsibility can be accepted by the publisher for errors or omissions, and in particular no responsibility can be accepted for the quality of goods and services supplied by advertisers, prices quoted or printers’ errors. All material, unless specifically stated otherwise is copyright of Blue Flag Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part either electronially or conventionally without the permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

ISSN 2518-6957

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, 2015. Image: Philip Newsome

Editor’s letter

I

t seems hardly any time ago at all that we were putting together the first edition of Monopod and yet here we are on the brink of releasing the sixth. It has evolved somewhat along the way but high quality, evocative imagery still remains at its very core. One of our central beliefs is that there are an awful lot of great pictures being taken by people from all walks of life who earn their living in ways other than photography. Put simply, you don’t have to be a professional photographer to take wonderful photographs. This is clearly evident if one scans the pages that follow.

That said, some of this month’s contributors are indeed professional photographers and yet find great satisfaction in exploring areas which offer little in the way of commercial interest or financial gain but are nevertheless fascinating in their own right. Take Stephen Davison’s collection of images of the petrol stations and general stores littering the back roads of Ireland (opposite). Stephen is of course one the world’s most renowned motorcycle road racing photographers and his work has featured in countless books, magazines and on film. And yet his images of these small, almost insignificant roadside establishments, mundane as they might seem at first sight have just as much appeal as his supreme shots of high speed action. They present a window into a world that is rapidly disappearing, one that may well vanish altogether within the next couple of generations. And therein lies the magic of photography, its ability to freeze moments in time and present a unique perspective on worlds we would not otherwise experience.

In many ways, the same can be said of Jeremy Rata. Jeremy’s tastes and abilities are truly eclectic, having covered Premier League football matches, rugby union internationals as well as building a highly successful business photographing hotels around the world. In the middle of all this he found the time to travel through a variety of places from Afghanistan to India recording the everyday lives of the people he came across along the way. If that wasn’t enough he has recently established Film Furbish which restores classic SLR cameras. Renaissance man indeed.

Elsewhere in this edition you will find the most beautiful work by a number of photographers who take pictures purely for the love of it. In many ways freedom from commercial pressures allows such amateurs free reign to experiment fearlessly and without risk. In truth, I hesitate to use the word ‘amateur’ as in recent years its meaning has been distorted to refer to someone who is not as technically assured or gifted as a professional. This is clearly not the case. I much prefer to use the term as it was originally intended i.e. to describe someone who does something for the love of it and out of the sheer pleasure and enjoyment it brings them. This is far more appropriate in my eyes and certainly applies to all of our featured photographers.

So, as we in the U.K. emerge from yet another lockdown and hopefully motoring events begin to take place again, let’s all get out there and do we what we love, interpreting what we see before us in our own individual, unique way. That is just as true whether you are a professional or just starting out in photography. Enjoy your summer.

Philip Newsome

Ivy Bar Lounge. Image: Stephen Davison

French post-war design, the Panhard Dyna X. Image: Riccardo Casa

TABLE OF CONTENTS 10

The Art of Stéphane Plassart

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La Dolce Vita

40 Jeremy Rata, Renaissance Man 56

The Classic Motor Hub

74 For the Love of Petrol 90

Classical Gas

110 Motorsport in Pictures 126 Deuce Days 142 GOW! Speed Hill Climb 2020

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the art of

Stéphane

Plassart W: endoublefile.fr Ig: @steffgraphik

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"F

or as long as I can remember I have been passionate about vintage cars and motorcycles. A few years ago I decided to devote some of my free time to gathering my passions and to express what makes me vibrate. I chose to share my taste for graphic art, art history, typography, vintage advertising, literature and so on.

In my creations I try to propose an unconventional approach to the subject. I regularly collaborate with enthusiasts of le monde ancien for whom I prepare visuals, logos, for example, the Napa Valley 750 Rally in California. I especially want to thank the Los Amigos team who two years ago asked me to create logos and posters for their participation in the Le Mans Classic.

I’m an eclectic collector (enamelled plates, miniatures, old books, radios etc.), horse dealer and an inveterate biker. These days I ride (more than I drive) a 1988 Ducati ST2 and I am in the process of restoring a 1979 BMW R100RS.

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"Like any applied art student, I took courses in sketching, anatomy, documentary studies (gouache, airbrush, graphite pencil, charcoal, etc.) as well as an extensive study of classical perspective, technical drawing and art history. In short, the typical background of an apprentice graphic designer of the late 1980s.

In the early 1990s I found my way thanks to digital technology and since then I have been exploring and developing vector drawing, taking advantage of the incredible potential of the software available on the market (Illustrator, Photoshop, 3D via Cine4D, etc). In short, a whole set of tools that I adapt according to the needs of the moment and the projects I am working on at the time.

I usually work in the following way: First of all there has to be an element of 'coup de coeur' - love at first sight in other words. Then I research the subject, look for photos, stories about it. I create a draft by hand and then finalise everything on my Mac. I love the precision of a perfect elipse!

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"Some drawings give rise to three or four different versions which we then market in the form of posters, postcards etc under the Endoublefile brand, that my wife Céline has been developing since the beginning of 2020. We try to participate in events whenever possible. Unfortunately, in 2020 we were only able to participate in Charade Heroes, held at the end of September on the Charade circuit. Let’s hope that 2021 will allow us to get out a little more!

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"Passionate about drawing, I made it my job."

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LA DOLCE VITA

Images and words: Gianluca Aggi Ig: @gianluca.aggi

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"I

live in Italy, in a small town overlooking the shores of Lake Como. It is very quiet in the winter, perhaps too much so and then in spring and summer it is filled with tourists from all over the world. Geographically, it is very well situated, between Lugano, St Moritz and Milan as well as many ski resorts.

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"My photography started by chance, when for a period of my life, I had to work all over Italy. At the same time I was in a way a tourist so started taking photographs. Of course they were typical tourist shots but something in me was stirring. I became fascinated by black and white images and in particular the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson which really struck a chord with me. I started studying him and other photographers of the 1950s and 1960s. Several contemporaries have also influenced my photography but above all else I had a strong desire to improve my own technical ability through research and practice.

Always strictly in black and white.

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"The recent tragic events linked to the Covid 19 pandemic forced me to stop my forays into the city where I was concentrating my research. Last summer however, I was fortunate enough to attend the famous Passione Engadina 2020 in St Moritz, reserved exclusively for historic Italian automobiles. Previous to that I had attended the Concours d'Elegance of Villa D'Este in Cernobbio, photographing the exhibits with my roll film SLR.

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"The St Moritz event was a huge source of inspiration and after that I began to document the histories of friends, acquaintances, friends of friends using a Fuji X100F, a very typical street camera. Again, always shooting directly in black and white. Until three years ago, I was photographing using an analogue Nikon F100 SLR, always in black and white and always with a fixed lens. The transition to digital was, somewhat tiring but now I feel good about it. Whatever the equipment, the spirit, curiosity and vision of the street photographer remains the same, namely discretion combined with professionalism.

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"Vintage cars and their owners have always fascinated me. Having found a way to know and experience them directly is very satisfying. In the beginning, I was more focused on the design of the car itself exploring ways to enhance it by making the most of ambient light and the shadows and lines of the surrounding landscape.

As I developed my style and technique, I began to introduce the owners of the cars into the scene. They don’t always want to be included and portrayed in this way, but I now insist on this aspect as I feel it really enhances my work. For example, this particular gentleman (opposite). A medical doctor by profession, his car collection is quite varied, very eccentric and clearly reflects his personality. His purchases are dictated by feelings and by curiosity. He is a very passionate person and the care and meticulousness with which he curates his collection is extraordinary.

My project has really just begun, there is still a long way to go with many shoots scheduled for the months ahead.

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Life's burdens, Bamiyan, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. August 2010.

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Jeremy Rata

Renaissance Man

"I

am a professional photographer. I came somewhat late to the game having been a rather prominent hotelier for the previous 35 years. The network I built up during that time helped me make a success of it but when the U.K. government announced a full lockdown in March 2020 my life, along with pretty much everyone else’s, came to a crashing halt. I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t think it would involve restoring film cameras.

Back in the early 1970s, for many the absolute heyday of film photography, my uncle, an accomplished photographer in his own right, owned a camera shop in the centre of London called York Cameras. Many of the top photographers of the day such as Bailey, Duffy, Lichfield and Snowden visited at one time or another. The stories were hilarious and I was captivated by it all. He developed and printed all his stuff in the basement cellar at my grandfather’s huge house in Totteridge and I can still remember the very distinctive smell of developer and fixer. My love of all things film undoubtedly stems from those days and has never left me.

Not a birthday or Christmas went by without me receiving some kind of photography-related present from my uncle or my parents and I became reasonably adept at it. My interest waned about the same time my interest in girls picked up and it became relegated to a hobby. Many years later, my hotel career took off and being something of an opportunist I used my latent skills to do the brochure work for the hotels.

In the early 2000s, I adopted digital with a passion and my interest in photography was re-ignited. I managed to become an accredited Premier League and International Rugby photographer all the while running the hotel company. Being entrepreneurial I seized on the opportunity and started doing the photography for my colleagues and competitors in the hotel industry to the point where I was able to set up a partnership with a photographer friend and started up Hospitality Photographic specialising in the hotel and restaurant business. The income from this lucrative side line was what allowed me to invest in quality camera equipment.

W: jeremyrata.com filmfurbish.com hospitalityphotographic.com Ig: @jeremyrata @filmfurbish @hospitalityphotographic

In 2010, a wealthy customer and friend at the hotel estate I was running at the time asked me to provide images for a book about Afghanistan, necessitating a three week trip to this amazing, often misunderstood country. It was life-changing in so many ways, not least because an image from that assignment was selected to be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery for three months as part of the 2011 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. The following year, after a follow up trip to India one of my images was once again selected to be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery. Many subsequent trips around the world to places like Chile, Argentina, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Bangladesh and India followed.

In 2015 I took early retirement from the hotel business to concentrate on photography with clients from around the world. All good and life was fun until the virus made its devastating impact on these shores.

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The horse man of Afghanistan. August 2010. A gas trader on the Bazar Road, Bamiyan.

I saw him heading down the middle of the road oblivious to anything, just intent on getting his job done. I ran to get into position and waited until he passed by and then pressed the shutter.

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Patiently waiting, New Delhi. February 2011. Even before they were put under horrendous strain by the Coronavirus pandemic, general hospitals in Delhi were busy places. On a quiet side street near the Deen Dayal Hospital I encountered this opportunistic man. It was his neatness that struck me.

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The morning papers, Kolkata. October 2011. Traffic in Kolkata is pretty random at the best of times. This very relaxed old man chose to sit on the corner of an insanely busy junction and read his paper as the traffic passed him by only inches away.

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Old Colonel’s never die, New Delhi. February 2011. Very late at night I was heading back to my hotel in a tuk tuk when I noticed this scene. I asked the driver to reverse back. The Colonel saw me with my camera, sat down and waited. It was a surreal moment steeped in good humour.

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Bombed out lorries, Herat, Afghanistan. September 2010.

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The King's Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan. September 2010.

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England v Ireland, Twickenham. February 2010.

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Manchester City v Liverpool, Etihad Stadium. October 2008.

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"In May 2020 I sat staring at the Government‘s SEISS grant application knowing that I had to put this money to good use if it was going to mean anything. At the same time I became distracted by, of all things, a magazine article about the wonderful little Rollei 35. And that’s when it hit me. I had loads of film cameras and I had become aware that film photography, like vinyl records, was going through a renaissance.

I decided there and then to use this money to start up a film camera restoration business.

I bought a Rollei 35 on eBay thinking I would clean it up and sell it on.

This was sold as ‘in good but untested’ condition but was, like so many things on eBay, a disaster of a camera with many faults, the shutter didn’t work properly and was sticky at best, the meter was broken, the film transport mechanism was faulty and it did not look as shiny as in the images that had sold it so well to me. All was not lost though as I shoot a lot of film on Rolleiflex TLRs and the guy who services them for me told me when I was relaying my tale of woe to him that he was also trained in servicing Rollei 35s at the parent factory in Germany. I sent it to him, and it came back as good as new. I was up and running. As 2020 came to a close I created www.filmfurbish.com specialising exclusively in film cameras, in particular Rollei 35s, Rolleiflex TLRs and Nikon and Olympus SLRs with over 100 cameras and so far, it has been a great success. I have had a lot of help from partners like the film retailer Analogue Wonderland (www.analoguewonderland.co.uk) and the highly respected blogger Hamish Gill at www.35mmc.com.

I am currently working on designing special cameras with custom paint jobs in partnership with an artisanal paint finisher and have created special camera and lens kits featuring top of the range Nikon film cameras such as the F2AS and F3 with 50mm f1.2 and 35mm f1.4 AIS lenses. All using cameras that I currently own. I only buy the best I can afford so all of the cameras I sell are in excellent condition. My aim is to grow this business into something really noteworthy and class leading.

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"As for lockdown? Well, it’s coming to an end now and I am kind of sad. A late entry into the world of retail has been a Godsend to me and has inspired me to explore new fields. I have always been able to combine a penchant for business with my love of things that interest me like football, rugby, travel and film cameras. Who knows what will inspire me the next time I find myself perched at my kitchen table in despair wondering where things are heading.

I do have a deep fondness for classic cars and own an E-type fhc 4.2, a 1966 Jaguar 3.8 Mk 2, an Alfa Romeo 1978 Spider and a 1966 Daimler 2½ litre V8 and have just sold a beautiful MGA Coupe, so who knows what might happen?

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W: classicmotorhub.com greasegrain.mypixieset.com Ig: @theclassicmotorhub @greaseandgrain

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The Classic Motor Hub Images and words: Abby Bowers

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"More than just a showroom" 59

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"B

orn into a family of artists and having studied Fine Art at university, creativity has always been in my blood. My fascination was always with film photography, using old slides and projectors and picking my way through old family albums of saturated, grainy captures and taking terrible flash shots on a disposable camera. I’m fascinated by moments frozen in time in beautiful photographic memory. Even those gritty, dark, less aesthetically pleasing instances.

I started taking photographs of cars because I was bored by the sort of car shows we were at. They were too static and the cars themselves weren’t old enough to keep my attention. But searching for odd angles and light with my camera kept me busy.

The inspiration for my images doesn’t stem from other car imagery, or even the car itself. I’m inspired by TV dramas such as Life on Mars, vintage film photographs that were captured not as art, but as a means to tell a story and the works of artists such as Tish Murtha, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Martin Parr to name just a few.

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"I bought my first digital camera, an Olympus OMD EM-10 MKII, in August 2019. At the same time we were going to more vintage and classic car shows and I felt much more at home. Modern cars don’t hold a fascination for me at all so finding myself at places like Bicester Heritage I had discovered the inspiration I needed.

I was always more of a thinking artist than a doer and I think that has rubbed off onto my photography. I don’t just shoot a car because it's beautiful or famous or expensive and I very rarely shoot a car in its entirety.

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"I use Lightroom to edit all my shots and it's a pretty simple process, technically I have no idea what I’m doing. When I sat down to edit my first shots taken on a proper camera I just moved the dials about figuring out what they did until the photo made me go yes! Thats it!

And that's what I’ve stuck with.

Turns out I like my photos dark and atmospheric. Some so dark that people have even complained! But I think that dark favours cars well, especially if they are emerging from the shadows.

I’m inspired by old family photographs, film photography, gritty street photography and I love any films or TV shows set in the 60s or 70s for inspiring the atmosphere of the shots.

I like to imagine my photographs hanging in an old fashioned gentleman’s club, while people are sitting around drinking whisky and smoking cigars.

If someone wants to buy a print I have them printed on soft, textured paper almost like watercolour paper so the dark looks really dark and the colours look intense. The more it looks like an oil painting the better.

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"I like reflections, shadows and finding moments other people might miss. You’ll usually find me hidden behind something trying to get a bit of an abstract shot.

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"Mere mention of the name D-type conjurs images of a golden era of sportscar racing. Introduced in 1954, it was intended to continue the marque’s run of success at Le Mans. Five cars were built that year, all for the factory team. Development of the D-type continued throughout its period racing life, even after Jaguar itself had officially withdrawn from motorsport following the 1956 season.

In addition to the works cars, Jaguar built a total of 67 D-types for private customers, of which 42 were sold; the remainder were either destroyed in the disastrous 1957 Browns Lane fire or converted into XKSSs. The ‘production’ D-types were sold all over the world and remained competitive into the 1960s, helping to cement the model’s reputation as perhaps the definitive sports-racing car of its time.

This stunning D-type, chassis number XKD 526, was delivered new to Australia where it was extensively and successfully campaigned between 1956 and 1962. It is the only D-type to have been raced in period with a hard-top roof. The subject of a dedicated Porter Press book on the car, its significance cannot be understated.

These images (this page and following pages) were taken at Cotswold Airport against a backdrop of decommissioned jet aircraft, a rather apt mise en scène given the D-type's unique, aerodynamic shape.

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For the love of

PETROL Images and words: Karl Lobley

Ig: @for.the.love.of.petrol

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"I

studied photography as part of an art course at college and fell in love with it. For some reason though, I put it aside as I went on to study graphics and advertising and have worked in the latter field for the past 20 years creating ads for everything from cars to chocolate. I guess working in this area helps my photography and vice versa as I’m constantly looking at things with a visual eye.

I think I first fell in love with cars when I was around 10 or 11 years old. The Lombard RAC rally used to pass the end of our road on the way to the Trentham Gardens Stage. My friends and I would ride down on our bikes to watch them pass by and then race home pretending we were driving one of them.

Following that, it was most definitely the beautiful Ferrari 308 that was owned by the second to last house on my paper round. I swear it used to take me as long to deliver that paper as it did the rest of the round. I’ve been a passionate fan ever since.

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"I’m lucky enough now to live within easy reach of Goodwood Motor Circuit, which is where I can usually be found given some free time. I adore the racing history of the place and there is always something exciting to be found there, no matter when you go.

But it’s the Revival that truly captures my heart. Billed as a ‘Magical step back in time’, it certainly lives up to that description, from the vintage metal to the vintage dress.

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"This shot of Chris MacAllister’s 1938 ERA B-type R14B was taken at the 2018 Goodwood Revival. I remember having to almost lie down to shoot under the protective fence that surrounds the track as I wanted the foreground to be more interesting than just the track. It also gave me the opportunity to include the sky and trees.

I often find myself in one form or another of odd, contorted pose in order to get the shot I'm looking for. I think I’m quickly becoming an expert at hovering slightly above the floor on one hand whilst holding a camera in the other.

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"My most favoured places to hang out are the paddocks and in the pits. There is always something happening there. Cars coming and going, mechanics feverishly working away, panics being averted. I remember once watching a team of mechanics change an entire engine.

Fascinating.

I love the atmosphere and the tension in the pit lane too, the driver change-overs, watching friends and team members cheering them on, the winners’ celebrations. It’s moments like that I look for in my photographs. I like to try and give the viewer a story if I can.

My goals for this coming year though are to shoot more stuff away from the track. To embark on more editorial-style projects and to expand my knowledge in that respect.

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"At present, I shoot with a Nikon D7200 and a combination of Nikkor lenses. The aim within the next few months is to move up to a D850 or a Z7. I’m struggling to make up my mind whether to embrace mirrorless or not.

As for lenses, my go to bits of glass are a prime Nikkor 35mm lens and a prime 85mm lens. Prime lenses stop me from being lazy and force me to re-examine what I am shooting, move and reappraise. Zoom lenses are great, but it’s very easy to stay in the same place and miss something.

I edit my images using a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop. I try not to over-edit though as I prefer a natural documentary style to my imagery.

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CLASSICAL GAS Images and words: Stephen Davison

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W: stephendavison.photoshelter.com Ig: @stephendavisonphoto

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"W

here does a hearse get its petrol? It’s one of those things you never really consider and I hadn’t either until I saw the local undertaker filling up his big, black shiny motor at Edward Byrne’s filling station in my hometown of Antrim (above). It was such a strange sight, I stopped and took a photograph. Byrne’s is still going strong today, a pump standing either side of the doorway almost 30 years after I captured its likeness in my first picture of an Irish filling station. A small family business that relies as much upon firewood, sweets and groceries for its income as it does petrol and diesel, it is typical of the small establishments found alongside country roads all over this island.

Over the past two decades more and more of these emporiums have been closing down, their simple, faded beauty replaced by the huge neon lit oases that now inhabit the outskirts of every town. Keen to document their charms before they completely disappear, I was sluggish to make a start before I chanced upon two old Esso pumps beneath an ancient shop sign one sunny Sunday morning. Long out of service but still lovingly maintained, they could not go unrecorded. Just a few miles further up the road, I came to a junction where a pair of red pumps stood side by side in front of a small cottage (opposite), like an old couple waiting for a bus. I have never driven past an old Irish filling station since without stopping to capture the scene.

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"Noel Bond, a native of Liscloon in Co. Tyrone, has spent the last four decades maintaining a tradition that began with his grandfather. Alongside a post office counter and lottery dispenser, jam pot covers, kettles, baseball boots and cough remedies share shelf space with bulbs and baby oil, Germolene and galoshes.

In days gone by mothers would have dressed their children and furnished their houses from shops like this.

“I start at 9.30 and open until 8." Noel explains “I got a new pump three years ago and even though I can’t sell petrol because I’m too close to the road, I’ll try to keep the place going.”

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"You get far more profit out of a cup of coffee than a litre of petrol."

"With governments pledging to ban the sale of vehicles powered by fossil fuels over the next decade, it won’t be just the small rural filling stations that are under threat. Men like Fitzy Chadwick, the owner of an immaculate little station in Borrisoleigh in Co Tipperary (left). He knows only too well the days of a business established by his father in 1948 may be numbered. Fitzy keeps the old place immaculate, the shelves stocked with as many components as would almost build a new car. "Who knows how things will go but I’ll sail about as long as I’ve my health." he says with a sad smile "Then it will be for the birds. I’ll leave the door open and they can fly in and out as they please."

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"Vestiges of another era, these little places are redolent of the Ireland of Heaney and McGahern, still stubbornly refusing to disappear as their owners shrug off the very modern contradictions of fuel pumps being stationed at a pub doorway.

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"Despite a dogged determination to keep the oil flowing, many proprietors have seen their tiny empires crumble. Between 2000 and 2008 over half of the filling stations in Ireland shut down. Restrictive legislation and falling profit margins have undermined the resilience of men and women who weighed out the spuds and neatly lined up spades and scallions along their shopfronts.

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Tricolour, Achill Island, County Mayo.

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motorspor t in pictures

Images and words: Dave Rook

W: motorsportinpictures.com Ig: @motorsportinpictures

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Above and overleaf, the iconic 1970 Porsche Salzburg 917 photographed at the 2020 Hampton Court Concours of Elegance where it won the coveted title of Best in Show.

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"I

rediscovered my passion for photography in 2009. Until then I’d been attending events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed with friends, armed with a pointand-shoot compact. When a good friend pulled out a Nikon DSLR and then showed me the resulting images, it wasn’t long before I was drawn in. This in no way advocates that good photography is all about having the best equipment (it really is what you do with it that counts) but it most certainly broadens your horizons.

My photography is unashamedly focussed around sportscars and motorsport. It’s what I love. Combining these two passions is a winning formula and keeps my enthusiasm alive. However, I’m really passionate about the classic scene. Half a lifetime ago I studied as a car designer and have been in luxury car interior R&D as a day job for the last twenty years. I don’t get tired of beautiful cars.

For me, there is nothing better than a packed paddock or grid of 1950s and 60s thoroughbred sportscars. Ferraris, Jaguars, Astons, ACs, Maseratis, Porsches, Bizzarinis and the like. These two decades for me, back from before I was born, epitomise the pinnacle of emotional automotive design.

Sportscars and racing cars of that era were sculptures. Aerodynamic performance was in its ascendency, leading to low, sleek, curvaceous bodywork, often at the limit of the coachbuilder’s craft, but with ideas around downforce and the application of wings and spoilers well and truly in their infancy. These sensual curves are often complimented by painstakingly engineered, jewellery-like details. You only have to study the finned brake drums of a Maserati 300S as an example of this. Something I get overly excited about…

Throw these elements into immersive events such as the Goodwood Revival, Silverstone Classic or the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance and I’m lost for the weekend.

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Martin Melling's gorgeous 1961 Jaguar E-type Low Drag Coupe, Silverstone Classic, 2018.

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"I’ve shot with Nikon cameras from the start. I don’t believe this is through any overriding brand loyalty, rather a familiarity with an operating system garnered through prolonged use. I currently shoot with a mirrorless Nikon Z6, whilst phasing out an old DX Nikon D7100. I’ve kept the crop-sensor D7100 for longer than planned as I resisted going full frame due to the emergence of mirrorless cameras. The Z6 is mirrorless, full frame and Nikon so I was quickly able to familiarise myself.

The Concours of Elegance images are from 2020, shot on the Z6 with a Nikon 85mm f1.8 prime. I spent all three days of the event with one camera body and one lens attached, working mostly with the aperture wide open. I have learned that I prefer the results of shooting with a short, fast telephoto, which for me outweigh their limitations in tight spaces. I also like to travel fairly light, the other must haves being a polarising filter (essential for me for shooting cars), spare memory cards, and with a hungry mirrorless camera, plenty of spare batteries. So far, I haven’t used flashguns or additional lighting. I’ve regularly started the day with a full camera bag, before heading back to the car to leave all the extraneous equipment behind and returning with one camera and one lens, the compromise of reduced equipment more than compensated for by the agility (and comfort) that it suddenly releases.

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"I post process all images that I share on my website and Instagram account using the basic Photoshop Elements software. For me it’s an important part of the creative experience and something that I enjoy greatly, providing a further layer of involvement and investment into what I photograph. It’s also a useful correction tool. I don’t use presets, but do follow an OCD-like sequence of tweaks to try and achieve a consistency of feel and style across my work. I also use it to recompose and crop, as I gravitate towards landscape images in 3x5 format, but portrait in 5x7.

I don’t like to over–manipulate my images, although that line is always subjective. I like to do a bit of housekeeping and hoovering up though, removing

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minor distractions from foregrounds/backgrounds and reflections. I like to think that I use post processing to bring an image closer to what I 'remember' shooting. I fully endorse Ella Mae Walker’s sentiments (Monopod 05) that high-vis vests are a real pain, especially incongruous at classic events that are otherwise full of period atmosphere.

This striking yellow 250 LM (this page, opposite and overleaf) was photographed at the 2020 Hampton Court Concours of Elegance. The second to last example built it was sold new to the Ecurie Francorchamps racing team on April 22, 1965. Its best result came at that year's Le Mans 24 Hours, where Pierre Dumay and Gustave Gosselin piloted it to second place behind the North America Racing Team's 250 LM of Gregory, Rindt and Hugus, the last Ferrari ever to win the race.

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Opposite and above, Gonçalo Gomes and James Claridge's evocatively-liveried 1971 Lola T212, Silverstone Classic, 2018.

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Gregor Fisken guides the 1954 Jean Behra Maserati 250F around the fountain circuit, Hampton Court Concours of Elegance, 2020.

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Above and opposite, Steve Brooks and Andrew Smith's spectacular 1965 ISO Grifo A3/C, Silverstone Classic, 2017.

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"I feel like my style has been an evolutionary journey, and one that is my own whilst being gently influenced by the work of fellow photographers that I admire and now regularly catch up with at events (thanks largely to social networking via Instagram). It’s great to catch up for a natter and a coffee or a pint in between running around like a dog off it's lead with a camera attached to my face.

There are a few small things that I’ve learned along the way. I wish I’d started shooting in RAW, rather than jpeg, earlier. It wasn’t until 2015 that I switched, and the wealth of extra information in each image file is invaluable to me now in post processing. I also wish that I’d taken far more photographs of the cars that I love. Especially with increasingly rare and valuable classics, you never know when or whether you’ll have the opportunity to see them again.

From this, a more recent change to my approach means that I’ve started to focus on a smaller number of cars at an event, but in greater depth. Following them around (often running), shooting them from different angles and situations, static and moving, in different lights, in detail, close up and further away. Perhaps most importantly, including increased human interaction, be it driver, mechanics or passers-by. This is especially effective at events such as the Revival, where the period backdrop and dress code really make it. Through this I am now trying to develop a richer experience from my images, giving more insight and context, telling a short story sometimes, but always centred on the car itself. This is one of the things that I hope to develop further in the future.

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A 1937 Chevy and a 1961 Chevrolet Impala outside the legendary Surf Motel, Victoria, British Columbia.

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DEUCE

DAYS Images and words: Chris Miles

W: cnmiles.ca Ig: @parkedinvictoriabc

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1929 Model A roadster.

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"D

euce Days caught me by surprise first time around. In 2013 I’d been living in Victoria on Vancouver Island for a couple of years and I had quickly picked up that there was a vibrant car scene with shows and informal gatherings throughout the summer. So when I heard about an upcoming hot rod show I thought it might be worth a look and arranged for a couple of hours free of domestic and social obligations on a Saturday morning and headed for a nearby point on the coast where I was told cars would be gathering. I was met by the sight of hundreds of hot-rods from all over North America, largely based on the iconic '32 Ford but including a formidable array of other hot rods, rat rods, muscle cars and classics.

Two things quickly became apparent to me. Firstly, I had brought the wrong camera, a compact Fuji X100 that I carried everywhere with me but that had a fixed 35mm equivalent lens which put me too far from the action at my available vantage point. Secondly, I had brought a dead battery as backup for the one in the camera that only managed a handful of frames before expiring. As a lifelong photographer with an abiding interest in all forms of motorsport I found myself presented with a world class car show on my doorstep (over 700 cars in 2013) and I had two flat batteries and no available time. I got one vaguely interesting shot out of that morning and a determination to be properly prepared next time, which would be in three years!

The reason that Deuce Days is so much more than just another hot rod show is local guy Al Clark.

Working single-handedly in the garage of his suburban home, Al has been turning out hot rods to rival those of the big speed shops in California for 25 years and since Al specialises in ’32 Fords it made sense that, when he started arranging meetings of his friends, a lot of deuces showed up.

1998 brought about 100 cars together for a day and Deuce Days has expanded every three years since then, becoming a three day event in 2004 and having close on 1400 cars registered in 2019 from all over North America. Of that total 650 were street rods based on Henry Ford’s 1932 design.

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Above (top) 1932 roadster and 1965 Pontiac GTO. Bottom, '32 Roadster.

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Above (top) 1932 5 window coupe and friends. Bottom, Al Clark’s '32 roadster So-Lo II.

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1961 Pontiac lowrider.

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Opposite,1932 3 window coupe. Above, 1932 roadster.

"In 2016 I had a plan. I cleared the weekend and decided to make four visits. Thursday and Friday evenings after work to catch the cars hanging out around the hotels and bars of the inner harbour, Saturday morning to see the rollout for the start of the poker run around the island and really early Sunday morning to get the cars when they were being moved into position for the show and shine that ends the weekend and brings out the huge crowds that make photography, and even walking, really difficult! By 2016 I was using a small Fuji Xe-2 and I decided I would use just one lens for each visit. Shooting parked cars from the sidewalk on the Thursday evening with the 18mm (28mm equivalent) produced results that were too distorted by the wide angle perspective and being able to assess the results and go back the next night with a 35mm (50mm equivalent) produced a much better collection of images. On the Saturday morning I took an 18-55mm zoom to the assembly area for the poker run and was able to combine candid portraits of drivers with their cars using the telephoto end of the range with wider landscape style shots showing the cars against the spectacular backdrop of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic mountains. On the Sunday morning I knew that I would be taking pictures at close quarters again as the cars were wheeled into position along the harbour front. With their cars safely parked the drivers were then free to wander around and inspect the rest of the show before the crowds descended. Wearing their best show day finery of colourful Hawaiian hot rod shirts and T shirts and lit up in the low early morning sun it quickly became evident that these were the stars of this part of the show. Using a little Fuji X-70 with a flip out screen and touch focusing I was able to hold the camera down at waist level like an old twin lens reflex and unobtrusively capture the colourful graphics as wearers walked past me in the crowd. By 9am it was time to get away from the crowds, pick up a strong coffee and head for home.

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Above, 1932 roadster. Opposite, 1932 sedans.

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"The 2016 show produced a collection of images I was pleased with and made up for the frustrations of 2013. In the run up to the 2019 show I held an exhibition of the shirt photographs at a local photo café and gave an illustrated talk entitled Strategies for Photographing Deuce Days. Assembling the exhibition and preparing the talk brought home the realisation that my photographs were predominantly static and that movement and action were missing despite being a key aspect of the event. So for 2019 I decided that I would avoid repeating any of the previous scenarios and instead concentrate on trying to capture the cars in motion. The blue hours of late evening provided the perfect backdrop as the lights of the hotels and bars came on and the cars began to cruise past, headlights blazing. I hope that the low light panning shots capture something of the excitement of these cars in what seems to be their natural environment. For the daytime shots I picked a spot on the Saturday run where the drivers accelerated to climb a short hill and the stance and speed of the cars gave a sense of the power that they so rarely get to use.

Bringing images together from the two events has highlighted how fortunate I am to be able to revisit this event, over a period of days and years, learning from mistakes, identifying omissions and concentrating on themes rather than trying to capture bits of everything at the same time.

And plans for 2022? Well Al said in 2016 and 2019 that each would be the last Deuce Days festival he would organise but if he can be persuaded to do it again then I definitely plan to be there, with a bag full of film.

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1950 Ford two door sedan.

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1961 Mercury Comet.

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"Not quite sure the purpose of this This lonely late night drive But sometimes you just need to run away To make it out alive" Excerpt from Late Night Drive

by OrSoUrDogSaid

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Simon Clare's V8 modified Model A.

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GOW!

Speed Hill Climb 2020

Images and words: Philip Newsome and Siobhan Owen 143

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"O

ne of the most asked questions about GOW! Speed Hill Climb is “what exactly does GOW! stand for?”

Many think it’s an acronym, but it isn’t. Quite simply, when the word gow is used in the presence of hot rods, it is a variation of 'go', but rhymes with cow. It is thought that the roots of the word date back to the opium dens of the late 1800s, taken from the Cantonese yao-kao which translates as drug-sap, and was used in the literature of crime authors such as the legendary Raymond Chandler.

As a term for hopped up cars, it pre-dates by quite some margin 'hot rod', which didn’t come into common parlance until the 1940s. Before that, in the 20s and 30s, cars were referred to as soup jobs, hot irons and gow jobs. Later on, as the flathead V8 became more prominent in racing, gow was used as part of a taunt towards the four banger guys, with the phrase "8 to gow, 4 to plow”, born from the four cylinder cars becoming less competitive.

Whatever the derivation of its name, the event is a two day celebration of the UK hot rod scene held under the auspices of the Vintage Hot Rod Association (VHRA) and under the boughs of the orchards that populate the Prescott venue. Set in the heart of the beautiful Cotswolds, this historic racetrack has been a home to motorsport since 1937 and is still as exciting today as it was 80 years ago. Along its 1,128 yards, the track has twists, turns, hairpins and blind bends that seem to drop to infinity. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. When it was built it seems unlikely that its founding fathers envisaged the type of machines taking part last autumn but no doubt they would approve of the spirit of camaraderie, sportsmanship and sheer enjoyment that filled the air.

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A brief history of

Prescott

The records of the estate go back to the mid-13th Century. It is located in the Cotswold Hills, just north of Cheltenham, about 100 miles west of London. The Manor of Prescott and other lands surrounding it changed hands several times and became owned in the mid-19th Century by the Earl of Ellenborough. In the intervening years the estate changed hands again and Prescott was put up for sale in the mid-1930s by the then owners, the Gloucestershire Dairy Company.

In 1937, Tom Rolt, who was a Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) member and lived nearby at Stanley Pontlarge became aware of the proposed sale of the estate. He knew it well and realised its potential as a hill climb venue. The VSCC had only been in existence for some three years at that time and were not in a position to purchase, so the idea was passed on to the Bugatti Owners' Club (BOC). Colonel Godfrey Giles together with Eric Giles acquired the Prescott House and Estate and then offered it to the Club for the purpose of creating a permanent hillclimb course, but giving the VSCC the rights to run one completely independent event a year, which they have done every year to date. The very first meeting on April 10th 1938 was for BOC members only and was more like an ‘informal opening of our new property’. The Second World War ended all activities at Prescott in September 1939, and the course remained unused until 1946, when it was reinstated and events started again.

In 1960 the original course was extended by the introduction of the 1127 yards ‘long’ course, courtesy of the development of Ettore's loop. This course is used now for all events except the VSCC weekend. The ‘short’ course was the original driveway from the Gretton Road entrance up to the Prescott Manor house, suitably resurfaced to cater for cars being driven at speed, as opposed to carts and carriages, and is 880 yards long.

The course itself is technically very demanding, from the slightly uphill start, a full blast under the footbridge to a sweeping left hander and onto the long 180 degree right hander at Ettore’s, then down-hill and up-hill to the famous Pardon Hairpin, a climbing left hander that then leads into The Esses, a tight left hander, up to ‘Semi-Circle', a long right hander which you approach looking at only the sky! Then onto the finish, and unlike most other venues, back to the paddock via the return road.

Prescott, 1969. In many way so little has changed, apart from the tobacco sponsorship adorning the start line. Image: Tim Beavis /E.V. Starr Archive.

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Rebecca Valverde on her way up the hill in her Model A Phaeton (opposite) while an admirer peers into Chris Rawlins' beautifully minimalist 1932 Ford modified (above).

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Liam Bates' Model T roadster.

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Partcipants line up patiently at the start line (opposite) and once the flag drops it's a wild, wind in the hair ride up the hill (above).

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Pete Ayres' Model A Speedster exits the Pardon Hairpin onwards and upwards to the Esses.

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Back cover: Buick Riviera at the Duke of London, The Factory, Brentford. Image: Philip Newsome Opposite: River Thames at Putney. Image: Siobhan Owen