Poetics of Speed: The Racing Photography of Dale Kistemaker
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 11:07AM 
One of the great things about having a blog is getting emails from fascinating people you never would otherwise meet. Such is the case with Dale Kistemaker, who shared some wonderful tales with me regarding his time as a racing photographer both at F1 races as well as Le Mans in the early 1980s. The best of them involves Dale being driven round La Sarthe by Derek Bell in the Le Mans Porsche 956 at racing speeds!
Dale has been posting images from his archives at his aptly-named site: Poetics of Speed. His work is not typical motorsports photography, because a lot of it focuses on what is going on around the main attraction rather than focusing directly on the main attraction. His focus on the details, the textures, and the atmosphere of Grand Prix racing, allied with the vivid colors and sharpness of his imagery are quite an intoxicating combination. I personally love all the intense driver portraits he got (see Keke Rosberg below, and study all the activity going on in his reflective glasses as he coolly smokes his cigarette.) as well as the garage and tool-box still lifes that really paint a picture of the time period, the technology, the people, and the tools. Below are my personal favorites from the site.
All images copyright Dale Kistemaker, used with permission. Poetics of Speed
Reader Comments (5)
Its not just about fast cars driven with fury. But more importantly, its about the raging tempers, uneasy mindset, fear of tragedy, to have or not to have faith in predictions, raised eye brows, cigarettes, style, class, ego and lots of other stuff for which I am not experienced to type down but Mr. Dale has certainly added to that treasure of understanding racing, which is contrary to popular belief; so much more than just fast cars and money.