Short Track...A Leica shooter's new book

[David_Manning]

I just corresponded with this shooter. He shot his book, Short Track, with Tri-X and Leica rangefinders. Thought I'd pass the link along...

http://jakemendel.com/

[J. Borger]

Lovely work! Thanks for the link.

[robklurfield]

The book is very nicely done and captures a way of life. Thanks for the link.

[Todd.Hanz]

well done, capturing a great balance of the racing lifestyle and the competition.

Todd

[brainwood]

Nice take on the dirt track racer and life around it. Jake's shot of a car leading a race particulary stands out to me as its not the cliche shot of Motor racing. I like the motion hes captured. You can smell the oil in most of his pictures.

I spent sometime myself competing on a purely amateur level in the UK hillclimb and Sprint world and he's certainly captured the all consuming nature of motorsport. To the outsider the rewards can seem small but to the driver ( I guess most of these guys prepare their own cars) the thrill of race can be enough of a drug on its own. Jake's shots capture this well

[-doomed-]

Originally Posted by nikonhswebmaster

#17 is truly a great photo! The winning driver with his daughter.

When I was a kid I went to dirt-track racing all the time, as well as low level drag. I did not know dirt-track was still alive and well. It is the best.

My bother stuck with it and built nitro drag bikes... The part of America I love... forever!!

Dirt track is very much alive still , a former co-worker of mine was a driver until he had a nasty wreck and had to stop racing , then his son's continued on. They race sprint cars that run on methanol and there's nothing quite like having your eyes burnt out of your skull while these monsters are idling. They live the life too , building for a full weekend of dirt track mayhem , running fast and loose,with throttle firmly planted on the aluminum floor, on slick tracks late into the night. Tension you can cut with a knife during an actual race, with people wound up about as high as the RPM the engines are turning. There is an amazing culture within that small world though , most of those guys usually will loan each other necessary items to keep running if something breaks. I'm not into oval track cars but the people are genuinely fascinating.

[goodtimes]

AWESOME. That is exactly the type of stuff I love and shot with a lovely camera and more importantly with a great artistic talent.

[zenlibra]

Thanks for sharing the link. Some really interesting stuff there.

[shadowfox]

Thumbs up!

Really good and focused piece of documentary without being predictable.

[John Rountree]

Thanks, I will show this to my Documentary class.