Formula Non

2009 - 2019

This project began in 2009 and took me to twenty five Formula 1 race weekends in seventeen countries over ten years. The photos are all shot from the edges of the circuits, where little can be seen other than some clues that you might be at a Formula 1 race.

The scope of the work grew over the decade of shooting, eventually becoming more formal when I started using a large format camera in 2017. Ironically this method of shooting ended up yielding the only photos that contain glimpses of the cars on the track.

The project has been split into thematic parts here. A final edit will probably be a tight one of fifty to eighty photos that combines all the themes. Perhaps eventually this will be a book, an exhibition, or something else. The thirty images here represent around 1% of the total work shot over the decade of the project and give an idea of the approach.

I am uploading the occasional blog post on the project, these can be found under the formulanon tag

Monaco is where the project began and where I found myself returning four times, despite it being utterly unsuitable as a racing track. The place feels like no other on the calendar. It is layer after layer after layer of high rise concrete, steel, catch fencing, and scaffolding. Some parts of the circuit you feel like you could almost reach over to the other side if it weren't for all the metal in your way.

General Admission finds us wandering around the other circuits on the calendar. From the more historic European circuits to the Americas, Australia, and Asia. The worldwide scope of the sport is at odds with recent efforts to cut costs and promote energy saving.

Unusual Suspects features some of the portraits I shot of fans and workers at circuits. I intentionally looked for subjects who were not the usual ones, and was interested more in the boredom that is easy to find at a race weekend; despite how the sport is branded it’s actually pretty dull when you attend a three day long event, hoping to see moments that last just seconds.

Desert Tracks features images from Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Ferrari World (a purpose built theme park next to the Abu Dhabi circuit). As F1 plans to go to Saudi Arabia in 2021 for the first time it will now have three venues in the Middle East, all of which are run as vanity events and are places of odd contradiction. Glued down sand, air-conditioned grandstands, imported drinking water, night time races, all to escape the desert conditions.

Glimpse features some of the later large format work and finally shows us some passing glances of cars on tracks. Only as tangential detail however, such is the reality of viewing a race from the cheap seats of the general admission areas.