Congratulations to Max Pichler on his 90th birthday!
Many Zwischengas readers are unlikely to be familiar with the name Max Pichler. But they have certainly seen his work. Max Pichler photographed for Automobil Revue for decades and many of the pictures from the Geneva Motor Show, which can be viewed on Zwischengas, were taken with his camera. He took photos on the press days and developed the films in the bathroom of the hotel room in order to enlarge the images directly afterwards. His photos, together with the editors' text contributions, made it into the print edition in time for the start of the Salon.
He sometimes drove to Geneva in his BMW 507, which was occasionally misused as a commercial vehicle and had to accommodate the enlarger (pictured above). Pichler loved the 507, but eventually sold it out of common sense.
Max Pichler liked fast cars anyway. In the sixties, he raced in a Fiat-Abarth himself and also drove one or two faster cars in his private life. It was therefore fitting that he was one of the founding members of the motor racing magazine Powerslide and photographed many national and sometimes international events.
He has remained loyal to the car with a gasoline engine to this day. His current car is a Mazda MX-5 (NC), which he still drives on mountain passes.
We congratulate Max Pichler warmly (and with a lot of nostalgia) on his 90th birthday today!
