A CONVERSATION WITH DARRYL MORAN
On April 17, 2018, photographer Darryl Moran discussed his NASCAR work with Woodmere’s William Valerio, The Patricia Van Burgh Allison Director and CEO; Rick Ortwein, Deputy Director for Exhibitions; Rachel McCay, Assistant Curator; as well as Stephanie Marudas, Founder and Executive Producer of Kouvenda Media. WILLIAM VALERIO: Darryl, thank you for meeting
with us today. Tell us the story of how you began working at NASCAR as their first “official” photographer. DARRYL MORAN: I worked as a color mixing
specialist for DuPont Automotive Finishes in Lionville, Pennsylvania. They had a huge warehouse, storage facility, sales. I mixed paint for UPS, Ryder, and many other corporations’ vehicles. VALERIO: You were doing this by eye? This was a
job that had to do with the precision of your visual sensibility?
Darryl Moran (left) and Jeff Gordon (right) at DuPont, 1993
MORAN: Yes, to a point, but I also had formulas for
paints, sent them off, and found out that they were
the colors. In 1992, DuPont decided to get involved
actually the paints for Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR
in NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car
Winston Cup car.
Auto Racing). Their tagline was that DuPont was the official paint finish of NASCAR.
The following year, in 1993, Jeff completed his first full season in the NASCAR Winston Cup series.
DuPont drafted or signed on Jeff Gordon, who was
From day one, DuPont gave all of us who were
an up-and-coming sprint car driver with a lot of
involved in the Refinish Division in Lionville pit and
talent. They already knew he was going to make it
garage passes. We went to Dover International
to NASCAR, to the Winston Cup series, which was
Speedway and Pocono Raceway and had access
the former name of the highest level of NASCAR
to the driver’s area, pit row, and the garage area.
racing.
My full-time position was with DuPont, and I
One day at work I was given paint mix formulas for colors I had never seen before. They were rainbow colors with a metallic base coat. So I mixed up the
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WOODMERE ART MUSEUM
was photographing weddings and parties on the weekends. Going to the races opened up a whole new opportunity for me to photograph something completely different. I took my gear to the races,