Triumphs and Turmoils: Why Cars?
I have been around cars my entire life. For as long as I can remember, my dad has been building show cars, rat rods, and most recently, drag cars in our garage. He currently has a 1949 Austin A40 called Lil’ Nasty that has a 505 big block from a monster truck as its powerplant, and this descendant of a monster truck is a monster of its own. He also built another gasser, a 1933 willys with a 1955 392 blown Hemi. Lastly, he has a custom built front engine dragster powered by a 350 alcohol engine. It’s a pretty damn cool car. Growing up around all this beautiful machinery taught me a huge amount about cars, hard work, building and maintaining, and most important of all, patience with your craft. These custom cars take years to build. Hours in the garage, sweating, thinking, frustration, having awesome breakthroughs and eventually, a completed piece of art mixed with machinery. Throughout many years of watching my dad work on cars, I have studied the lines of their bodies and realized how beautiful the artistic process of designing and subsequently building a car is.
Since pursuing photography as my profession, I have had a strong yearning to photograph automobiles, too - a longing to capture their elegance and grace, as well as their power. I choose to show these vehicles off in fine art photos, and the more attention I pay to their beautifully engineered details, the more I learn about staying focused on a singular goal or process, which, as I've spoken about in the past, has always been my struggle. When I see an awesome vehicle, my first thought is, ‘how can I capture this car in its best form?' My goal is to catch the eye of car lovers and art lovers alike with these photos. I want these cars, this beautiful form of art, to speak to you, the same way they've spoken to me.
When I was 10, my dad shared his prized, signed copy of the legendary Canadian Group of 7 art book with me. He'd had this book since he was a child, and the significance and beauty inside of this book grew a great appreciation for art in me. As I gingerly thumbed through the glossy, gorgeous paintings capturing transcendent landscapes and lush scenery, I desperately longed to be an artist, but was not sure how to do so, or which medium to use. My journey to finding photography as my art form was a long and twisty road (see last post, ‘The Journey' for more details), but I finally nailed it down. I got my start in professional automotive photography on a whim, and thanks to trusting a gut instinct. When I was on a drive to a work site, I saw a sign for the 2018 CSBK (Canadian Superbike Championship) event at the famed Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The high-pitched screams of the bikes engines, the blur of the riders flying past, and the sheer excitement shown by the fans and spectators had me hooked from the second I arrived at the track. In fact, I camped out at the track that very same weekend on a whim, with minimal food and water, just to be sure I’d get the maximum amount of photos. In addition to being trackside to snap some cool shots, I was lucky enough to meet some of the racers and long-time professional photographers such as Art Lupinacci, Tim McGill, and Brian Goldschmied. After spending some time around this industry I can say with utmost certainty that the race community is full of some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of associating with. As I’ve grown into my role as an automotive photographer, I feel confident that I’ve found my tribe, my craft, and most importantly, my way to share art with the world.
I am here to give my all to capture the highlights and unforgettable moments of these athletes and their teams, as well as producing high quality automotive commercial photography with the coolest vehicles available. Today, I am proud to announce that I also intend to start a podcast to interview the racers, crew members, fans and other media members, as well as a dedicated YouTube page for the same audience. The YouTube page will provide video of the racers on track days, their racing setups, their race trailers and even laps around the track that they will be racing that weekend. I am so excited to bring you more amazing times through a lens, and a microphone as well! Check out our Instagram page @release_the_shutter_ for more insane images and information, and feel free to contact me at (289)385-3850 if you’d like to be part of this media journey I’m taking off on.
Your friend, in happiness,
Richard Hornby.