Re: [Leica] A Weekend at the Races

[Dennis Painter <dwp@deltanet.com>]

John Gong wrote:

<snip> 
> Coresident with the car paddocks were vendor tents.  These were set up for
> the shoppers of racing paraphenalia. The special moment for me was meeting
> Jesse Alexander, a famous racing photographer.  He was manning a tent and
> signing photos, posters and books.  I purchased his book of 40 of his
> favorite images.  Catching him at a slow moment, I asked him about some of
> his technique.  Unlike many of the photographs we see today in auto sports,
> he does not primarily use a long telephoto to capture auto cars in the
> highly compressed, aggressive stances that is favor.  His photographs are
> first and foremost black and white, printed by himself (some looked as
> delicate as palladium prints in capturing shadow details and highlights),
> and utilizing for the most part a wide angle lens.  No, I didn't ask him if
> it were an M camera that he used through the years, but his images spoke of
> that approach that we all know and love - technical excellence, expansive
> yet intimate, capturing the human spirit of the drivers and crew members in
> the pits, moments that live on as the reference of the era he recorded. 

Jesse Alexander is one of the greats of auto racing photography.

Some of his work is on the web here:

http://www.jessealexander.com/gallery.html