MOTORSPORT IN COLOUR

Taking a glimpse between the pages of a new book celebrating the photography of Brian Joscelyne

Taking a glimpse between the pages of a stunning new book featuring the vivid photography of Brian Joscelyne

Camera-wielding aces such as Tazio Nuvolari and Phil Hill have left fascinating images, but racing was always the top priority. Brian Joscelyne maintained that he was an enthusiast, yet his direct involvement with motorsport – be it at the wheel of a Lola at Spa, timekeeping for Jim Clark or team managing at Le Mans – gave his hobby photography a special perspective.

Where most photographers focused on the track, Joscelyne was inspired by scenes away from the action. A frustrated Lance Reventlow at Monaco, a timing crew clowning around with signals at Mulsanne Corner, or colourful support vehicles in the campsite: all were vividly captured by his Pentax loaded with Kodachrome.

Over three decades Joscelyne created an extraordinary record. From road trips across Europe with mates in Minis to dodging Porsche 917s in a Chevron B8 at Montjuïc, he always packed a camera to capture the adventures. An interest in photography and travel came from his father Lewis Hamilton Joscelyne, better known as Hilton, whose successful estate agency and auction business afforded him the chance to visit the Olympics before WW2. Motorsport also excited Joscelyne Snr and in 1938 he took his four-year-old son to Brooklands, recording the action with a new cine camera on expensive colour stock. That early introduction led to Brian’s lifelong interest in the track, and he was later involved with the Brooklands Society.

His father also introduced young Joscelyne to Aston Martin with a secondhand 2-litre that Brian took to a posting in Catterick during National Service. Back on civvy street, Joscelyne joined the family business, treated himself to an SLR camera and began recording his favourite sport. To celebrate their son being demobbed, the family went to Le Mans for the ’57 24 Hours,

PHOTOGRAPHY PALAWAN PRESS The scale contrast of an Abarth 700S filling up at an Esso tanker in the paddock before practice caught Joscelyne’s eye during his visit to Le Mans in 1962. The works team from Turin proved fragile, however, and none finished in the final appearance for Carlo Abarth’s factory equipe

Joscelyne loved the atmosphere at Le Mans, particularly the social scene out at Mulsanne Corner where he’d meet up with pals every year. Here the Aston crew in 1963 hold out a joke for Phil Hill as he accelerates past in the project car DP215. During the race the American was the fastest man for many hours, and was clocked at 186mph down the Mulsanne Straight, but rapid downchanges to avoid a crashed Bonnet Aérodjet damaged the gearbox and he retired on lap 29

The magnificent sight of Scuderia Ferrari’s Fiat transporter arriving in the Spa paddock for the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix covered in road dirt after the long trip from Maranello. The ‘Sharknose’ 156s were no match for the English teams, but American Phil Hill (number 9, on the top) finished a valiant third with Mexican sensation Ricardo Rodríguez in fifth