Gilles Villeneuve brushes a strand of hair behind his ear, Pedro Rodriguez rests on a small stone wall, Jo Siffert stands around in white jeans and cowboy boots, grid girls smile and wave at the camera... moments like these are captured in heaps in this book and made accessible to us.
It is not often that a book about historic motorsport manages to surprise the racing fan once again. Many books have already been published on this subject and many photos circulate in several books, or at least similar pictures. But this book is completely different, because most of these photos have never been seen before, not even the same situations from a different camera. They are mainly taken by amateur photographers who share their fascination for fast cars with us through their impressive photographs. Swiss filmmaker and collector Thomas Hoart has tracked down these images over many years and now presents them for the first time in this book.
The charm of amateur pictures
If you already have a lot of books about historic motorsport at home, you will probably be a little surprised when you look at the first few pages of this book... They are not razor-sharp glossy pictures, not perfectly composed snapshots, but you feel immediately captivated in a special way, as if you were a privileged spectator with special permission to follow the racing driver even in his most private affairs. The photos are often very intimate, you often wonder what the stars of yesteryear were actually doing before a race, or where they were afterwards and with whom.
The photos in the book were mostly taken by amateur photographers, and you can naturally sense the enthusiasm they brought to their work in order to document the passion of the racing drivers and their surroundings. Because of these facts, the photos are also absolutely unique and all the photos (with a few very few exceptions) are therefore being seen for the first time. Really great! For example, the reader is catapulted within seconds into the crowd of spectators at the Nordschleife to follow the Grand Prix as if they had taken the photo themselves at the time:
A selection from 75000 photos
That's how many historic photos from the 20th century are now in the archive of Thomas Horat, a Swiss filmmaker and collector. For years he has collected, labeled and archived the photos, but unfortunately (we find) most of the names of the photographers are not known (at least many of the photos lack this information). The two editors, Hilar Stadler and Martin Stollenwerk, do not present the selected photos chronologically but focus solely on the images, their content and language. Each one is placed separately and tells its own story. Sometimes photos on a page have something in common, in terms of content or style.
An illustrated book
It quickly becomes clear that we are holding an illustrated book in our hands. Although there are a few texts (in English) in the middle of the book by Anthony Carter, Max Küng and the editors Hilar Stadler and Martin Stollenwerk themselves, otherwise the reader only actually consumes photos with a short line of text. In other books we would probably have noted this as a small point of criticism, but here the pictures compensate for this, because they really speak for themselves and so we actually like the book in this form very much.
The photos at the VROOOOAAAMMM
The photos can also be viewed at the VROOOOAAAMMM exhibition at the Museum Im Bellpark until November 8, 2015. The book will also be available to buy on site.
Conclusion
The book, published by Edition Patrick Frey, has more than earned its place on the bookshelf thanks to its unique photos and style. It perfectly complements other works in this genre and is always fun to leaf through. The format and feel are also impressive. As the title says, there is a good bit of magic in this book.
Bibliography
- Order the book from the publisher or Amazon
- Editors: Hilar Stadler, Martin Stollenwerk
- Publisher: Edition Patrick Frey
- 288 pages, 264 photos
- 21 x 31.5cm
- ISBN 978-3-905929-88-1
- € 54 / CHF 68
- English
