Jesse just died...a life fully lived...he was 92.
I have had the privilege of interacting with a number of heroes of my first days following sports cars and European road racing. What I mean by that is more than just a “hi” or a request for an autograph.
To name drop a few...I was with Phil Hill on a number of occasions and he and I were actually on a first name basis as I also chatted with Alma and Derek...a child at the time. But there was also Brian Redman, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Bobby Rahal, the Edlebrocks (Vic Jr, Cammie, and Christy)...and both Froilan Gonzales and Juan Manuel Fangio, who I spoke with on multiple occasions through the Ferrari Owners Club meetings and events or at various vintage racing venues.
All of these giants of racing were more than gracious and easy to talk to and with...but of them all only Jesse had me tongue tied in total awe...and he was not a racer. But I have spent a life playing in the world of photography, though I never had the equipment to do what he did around cars, and was too busy participating or concentrating about it to do more than some static paddock shots of race cars.
I was also too shy to shove a camera in anyone's face to capture them. I rarely did “people photos” and even when I did some professional figure studies or weddings did not pose my subjects but just snapped them “as they were.”
But Jesse's work was just so stunning that I could do little more than stammer a “hello” as I looked at what he displayed in his booth at the Monterey Historic races. That he was still shooting racing at that point in the late 20th century, after his fame and talent had been long recognized and rewarded, evidenced his ongoing love for the machinery and participants in the history of motor racing.
I never bought one of those works nor even his arguably most famous book, “At Speed.” But I did grab a copy of his later work “Driven,” published in San Francisco at the turn of the new century.
And as I flipped through it again as my own memorial to his Jesse's life work, I recognized that I too am at the stage in life where reprising and revisiting negatives shot long ago seems a natural way to sum up my own visions of the world.
The book is autographed, but I was too “star struck” to ask for a personalized comment. It has, however, motivated me to return to the darkroom again and look back to see if there is yet more of my own history captured in silver on acetate I wish to bring to life again.
It is, perhaps, the time of my own life to reminisce a bit, and to be fortunate enough to have both these memories, and my own visions, captured externally as well as within myself.
