A racetrack, a pinhole camera, a winters day and maybe a few ghosts.

The pinhole camera. A simple wooden box and no lens.

So i finally got out yesterday with my pinhole camera. Armed with a roll of Kosmo 100 black and white film i visited Oulton Park racetrack in Cheshire to see what the camera could do.

It was a beautifully sunny day so even using a tiny pinhole aperture exposures were typically around 1 sec, which is remarkably fast for this type of work. In the shadows it dropped to 16 seconds.

There was no track activity which added to the magic. The silence was hypnotic, broken occasionally by the call of the birds. If you opened your eyes you see Jim Clark driving his Lotus to Gold Cup glory, Ayrton Senna driving into and over Martin Brundle, the ground trembling power of formula 500 cars screaming up Clay Hill and the elegance of Barry Sheene pushing for Transatlantic points on an Easter Monday. The track was a peaceful place, hibernating and waiting for the return of racing. A cathedral of memories, dreams, tragedy and upset. A place of ghosts and motorsport history.

I have tried to convey that ethereal feeling with these images. The simple camera allows me to substitute technical excellence for mood and atmosphere. There are a lot of imperfections in each image and i feel that that is something to enjoy.

Thank you for looking. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as i enjoyed taking them.