Over the years I've been a fan of several automotive photographers. Some have specialized in hot rods and customs, others have covered racing, and some have concentrated on show cars. I'm not talking so much about contemporary photogs; there are many of them who are absolutely outstanding (Shortbus, Road Apple, SoCalCarCulture and DRD57 from this board a**** them). I'm thinking more of the guys who did magazine photography in the '50s and '60s, and a few from even earlier. For example, in the hot rod & custom vein, Eric Rickman is still well remembered, but how about Ralph Poole and Jerry Chesebrough, who did great covers and features in the Hop Up little pages? Some of the folks on this board are familiar with the French photographer Lartigue, who shot almost everything in his life with a simple box camera soon after the turn of the century. Somebody posted a picture of his in the thread about cars leaning forward in old-time racing pictures. There were several guys who photographed the European racing scene in black and white back in the day. George Monkhouse, Jesse Alexander and Pete Coltrin (also a hot rodder) come to mind. There was Bob Tronolone, who photographed Indy every year with beautiful, consistent one-car-at-a-time action pictures that appeared in several magazines, but I don't think I ever saw him shoot any other subject or event. And in the concours area, Marvin Lyons and Tom Burnside did mouth-watering color portraits of cl***ics that appeared in Road & Track and elsewhere. Tom shot both the Harrah and Speedway Museum collections better than anyone. I bring this up for a couple of reasons. I haven't heard of any of these older guys in a very long time; anybody know if they're still around, and what they did in later years? And... I imagine that there are others here who appreciate the work of certain guys; care to bring them up for the rest of us? If there's interest in this subject, I'll try to track down and post the work of some of the guys I've mentioned.
I remember Bob Hegge from St. Louis from back in the 50's and 60's. He shot all of the ISCA shows back then. He has p***ed away. I wonder if any of his work has been saved. BB
How about Marcia Campbell who did allot of the early Barris Customs shots. Also, a fella by the name of Jack Campbell as well, maybe he was married to Marcia, hence the same last name. Eric was always in there, like the Custom Annuals. Ken
Andy Southard jr.- he was in cali. in the early and late 50's , and on the east coast in the mid 50's, he's got 5 books out, and I would love to see the shots that didn't make the cut.
He shot my truck Bob for HRM in 61.....I would love to find out where his negs went Famous?......SHORTBUS IS KING!
I was the guy who posted the Lartigue photo. I've been a (serious amateur) car photographer for 30 years, mainly sports cars, and have been luck enough to meet a number of the "old guys". I was just thinking of Bob Tronolone the other day wondering if he was still around, and yes, shot a lot of sports car races, Can-Am and such. Jesse Alexander has a studio in Santa Barbara. Pete Coltrin has been gone for a while and his archive is owned by the Klemantaski Collection. That's another great name, Louis Klemantaski. You mentioned Monkhouse, another is Robert Fellowes from the same era. Two other greats p***ed away not long ago, Bernard Cahier and Geoff Goddard. I bought a number of Geoff's prints from his business partner, author Doug Nye, earlier this year. Pete Lyons is another American great in my book and his father Ozzie was pretty fair also. Pete lives up in Arrowhead. Dave Friedman was the official photog for Shelby and went everywhere with the team. Odds are if you saw a great Cobra photo from back in the day, Friedman shot it. How many more can I thing of, John Lamm, Rainer Schlegelmilch, Julius Weitman. And someone you probably never thought of, Phil Hill. Yup, the winningest Ferrari driver in history and 1961 World Driving Champion often carried a camera. There is a book being published soon of Phil's photos with words by Doug Nye. It should be fantastic. When I would see a photo in a book or a mag, you know, the kind of photo that just grabs you, I would stare at it, study it, try and dissect it. Just try and figure out why it was so great and then how I could shoot something like that. Everyone thinks it's so easy, just point and click. Ya right. Just like taking a piece of metal and a hammer and pounding out compound curve. Over the years I've shot like 25,000 photos of cars. Out of those, ther are maybe 12 I'm really happy with. I'd like to hear everyone's favorites, names I may not know. I love to see new stuff that floors me. It keeps life interesting. Cheers, Kurt O.
Andy Southard is still around taking pictures (and video) at some shows... He doesn't get to as many as he used to of course, but he's got some good stuff in his archives, he's also a great guy.. he spoke with my brother for awhile the last time we saw him about copyright laws, money and a lot of cool stuff about getting yor photos sold/published -Juan
Kurt, thanks for the updates on several of my favorites! I had heard about the Phil Hill book. Seems to me that some of his photos were published recently (in R&T?), and that he really did have a variety of talents: driver, restorer, author, photographer. I think Tom Burnside is probably still around, too. I bought a print from him at his booth at a Monterey car show a few years ago. I'll scan a few of these guys' work and put it up.
I talked to Eric Rickman at the CHRR last weekend. I had never met him before,but just decided to tell him how much I had enjoyed his photography over the years. He is an absolute gentleman and we talked for quite a while about his stint with Petersen publishing. He is 88 years old and said since Wally Parks died, he is the oldest living employee left from the old Hot Rod magazine days. Very interesting chat and I enjoyed it immensely. Mick
We usually think of his writing, but Yer Ol' Dad, Grey Baskerville shot the occasional pic. He'd have loved the HAMB. Of course, he might have been treated badly if some of you'all had met him. He was a potbellied geezer with thick gl***es, Hawaiian shirts and flipflops. You'd probably think he was a Boyd shopping 'chainer. But Yer Ol' Dad pretty much invented hot rod cool. So, I nominate Grey Baskerville for notation in this thread.
Yeah those guys are really good.. Some of my favorites are: Steve ****an - TRJ ya'll know Elliot Gilbert - Lowrider Magazine, BLVD Magazine and not sure what he's up to now Estevan Oriol - Too much to list Marco Patino -Lowrider Magazine There's a lot of great photographers out there... wish I couls help with names of guys that did it 'back in theday' -Juan
Hands down..."back in the day": Ol Dad Baskersville, Rickman, Jesse Alexander (check out "SPEED" if you can get ahold of a copy), Don Gillespie (drag racing), Steve Reyes (drag racing), and modern days Steve ****an (TRJ), a master of the dawn and twightlight photo and the studio "seamless" shots...not as easy as it may appear. Some of the lowrider photogs are genius, too. Take it from a 40 year professional photographer, myself...these guys are good!
And here I thought I would see some great shots opening this threat.... I love still photography art. One of the art forms I really have enjoyed experimenting with. Great pictures can make all words obsolete. If anybody has some special pics that make the point - please post them or provide links. Especially original period photos. I understand all about copyrights - just add a watermark or name or link... Thank You.
Bob Harde shot a lot of stuff for Peteresen in the fifties and sixties. He was based in San Diego and was a regular at Balboa Stadium and the Paradise Mesa drag strip. George Barris shot a lot of car shows for Hot Rod and Motor Trend. There were more than a few artsy fartsy shots of components. Kurt's style (which I appreciate) is very similar to early Barris.
Bob Hardee was one of the greats and an inspiration to me as a photographer. Considering the equipment and film he had to work with 50 years ago, he got better images, sharper and with better tones, than most of the stuff being shot today. I am fortunate to have a small collection of his prints. The story I heard is that after Hardee's death all of his negatives were tossed out! Such a shame. Steve Reyes is another shooter who inspired me along with Bob Tronolone, whom I was fortunate enough to meet several years ago. I can only hope to be half as good as those guys. Okay, okay, I'll stop now. I promise.
Here are scans of the work of three of the guys I mentioned yesterday. The first is the April '52 Cover by Jerry Chesebrough. He did several color covers for HU in this period, and got photo credit right under the photograph, although no photo credits appeared inside the magazine. The second is Ralph Poole, who shot a feature of this wonderful Deuce 3W that appeared in the July '54 R&C. By this time photo credits were being shown inside too. These two guys had kinda similar styles, shooting in rather formal and upscale settings. There were other uncredited features inside the early Hop Ups, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that one of these two had shot them. The third is Tom Burnside, who excelled at slick portraiture in natural outdoor settings. This picture is from a Speedway Museum souvenir book ***led "The Exciting 500", and unfortunately these color pages have faded over time. Tom shot an incredible book on the Harrah collection that was published in 1966 called "Motorcars of the Golden Past", as well as some coffee table books written by Ralph Stein. These are all exceptional, but the images are too large for my scanner. I'll have a couple more in a little while.
Yep, he does it for me and is at the TOP of my list. I had the opportunity to met him in person in August. I was like a schoolgirl with a crush. Coby, Shortbus, Juan and Nate, their work speaks to me as well.
myself.. and my ego.. the gewertz brothers, m. dorman, d. perry, dan "the man" gilday, august van, b. manbeck, j. watson, oh and SPIDERMAN or Spidey.. And the ruler of all lowriders E. Orial.. all else i have forgotten and or can't spell their names..
Not HAMB-centric but good stuff. A few from Louis Klemantaski http://www.klemcoll.com/image/55R6D-29.aspx?page=2 http://www.klemcoll.com/image/C57C1-1.aspx?page=3 http://www.klemcoll.com/image/56C4A-18.aspx?page=5 Phil Hill by Bernard Cahier https://www.f1-photo.com/index.cgi?...fset=0&TotalSize=25&Lang=en&NamePage=picture& Lartigue again, Kurt O.
Jim Potter did a lot of great photos in the mid/late 50's and early 60's. He is best known for the photos he took of Larry Watons customs... especially the group shots... His work appeared on a lot of magazine covers.
The Jalopy Journal
