A Ferrari mid-air, wet asphalt below, a dense crowd behind. Even the cover of Ferrari. Sports Car Racing, the limited “Collector’s Edition” published by TASCHEN, makes it clear what German motorsport photographer Rainer W. Schlegelmilch is all about: that moment when technology, risk, and emotion intertwine. The photographer, who accompanied international motorsport for decades, compiles here images from his early years between 1962 and 1973.
Schlegelmilch’s encounter with Ferrari began at the 1000-kilometer race at the Nürburgring in 1962. He had arrived with a camera and three lenses, originally for his photography degree thesis. In the paddock, he met focused drivers, mechanics at open hoods, and smelled oil, gasoline, and burnt castor oil. Ferrari and the aura surrounding the brand particularly captivated him: red racing cars, high-revving engines, big names, and the color red as a myth of love, blood, and passion.
This initial approach resulted in a photographic memory of endurance racing. The volume follows the races chronologically, from the Nürburgring to Le Mans, Monza, and Brands Hatch, to Targa Florio, Spa-Francorchamps, and Watkins Glen. Tables, track diagrams, and concise reports structure each chapter, while the photographs open up the action from close proximity. They show starts, pit stops, repairs, and accidents, but also glances, gestures, and brief moments of waiting. Schlegelmilch was interested in the connection between man and machine pushed to the limits of performance, the joy of victory, and the despair of defeat. His pictures, he writes in his foreword, were meant to capture emotions at the right moment and in the right place, as “pictures for eternity.”
This proximity defines the most powerful shots. Drivers wear open helmets, mechanics work with oil-stained hands, spectators stand directly by the track. Speed is experienced through bodies, faces, motion blur, and the spatial narrowness of the racetracks. Belgian racing driver and 1972 Sports Car World Champion Jacky Ickx, who has known Schlegelmilch for more than five decades, recalls in the foreword a photographer who was always in the right place and relentlessly sought the perfect image.
At the same time, the 372-page book documents the transformation of racing. By the late 1960s, safety issues became more pressing, which also meant that higher guardrails increased the distance between photographers and the track, and closed helmets obscured drivers’ faces. In 1973, Ferrari’s historic involvement in sports car racing ended. The oil crisis led to cancellations and shortened races, and Ferrari concentrated its efforts on Formula 1. With that, the immediate photographic intimacy that characterized Schlegelmilch’s early pictures also disappeared.
The large-format volume’s concise visual system precisely continues this tension. Black pages form the background for black-and-white shots and vibrant color images. Narrow, elongated typography in red and yellow recalls start numbers, posters, and historical race programs. Track layouts, results, and image captions seamlessly complement the photographs.
Ferrari. Sports Car Racing, limited »Collector’s Edition«, is both a racing chronicle and a photographic narrative, preserving an era that is unlikely to return, where the distance between driver, machine, audience, and camera was still small and thus full of tension. Rainer W. Schlegelmilch’s images portray Ferrari as a myth, but one could also say their true subject is the visual experience of the thrill behind speed. [Ed.]
Ferrari Sports Car Racing
limited “Collector’s Edition”,
with engraved acrylic book stand
356 pages, 34.4 x 40.8 cm
taschen.com
