Product Description

This lavish photographic book is divided into three sections - races, faces and places - and recalls the nostalgic heartland of motor racing in the 1960s. Formula 1 subjects feature, but Michael Cooper also covered sports, GT and saloon car racing, while his portraits of iconic 1960s drivers are among his best work. This book illustrates Michael's genius at capturing the moment and his ability to understand the subject or place in a way that transcends technical skill. Unlike today's rigidly controlled accreditation and access restrictions, Michael's busiest motor racing period coincided with the relatively easy working conditions and unfettered trackside access that so defines this era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45478 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Paul Parker is the author of four titles in Haynes's highly rated 'In Camera' series - books on sports car racing and Formula 1 in the 1960s and 1970s. He is a freelance writer and a superb photo researcher, with work published in Octane, Motor Sport, Classic Cars, Forza!, Jaguar World Monthly and The Daily Telegraph. He lives in Switzerland.

Customer Reviews

More superb photo nostalgia
In recent years there have been several quality photo books recalling bygone motor sport providing a wonderful nostalgia-trip and valuable archive for future generations. `Races Faces Places' is a selection from the lens of Michael Cooper who was active as a jobbing professional during the 1960s and into the early 1970s, covering mostly GPs and a few other selected races. An earlier book of his work - `Sixties Motor Racing' - now goes for silly money: I confess I never saw that, but it seems to have consisted primarily of previously published action shots. For this new book, Parker has trawled through Cooper's copious negative collection [Cooper died in 2005] to come up with a selection of nearly 400 lesser-known and extremely varied shots.

Despite the comments in Amazon's product description the book is not "divided into three sections" but laid out approximately chronologically, with chapters titled `1956-61', `1962-64', `1965-69' [the largest chapter], `1970s' [up to 1973, includes a few overhead comparisons from 1988], `Cinematic Overtures' [a short look behind-the-scenes of the films `Grand Prix', `Le Mans' and `Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'] and `More To Consider' [a miscellaneous assortment]. Monochrome predominates in the early part of the book, as do UK locations, but it gradually becomes more colourful and international as it progresses through the 60s.

Anyone familiar with Parker's excellent `In Camera' series - also with Haynes - will know roughly what to expect as there is a distinct family resemblance in layout and style: aside from short chapter summaries, commentary is reduced to explanatory captions leaving us to concentrate on Cooper's pictures. And they are a wonderfully eclectic selection: aside from obligatory `action shots', we see paddocks, pits, car parks, autograph-hunters, transporters, candid portraits [not just drivers], Cooper family, grids and many others giving a superb insight into the atmosphere of life in and around motor sport in those days, some reminding us that racing was then very dangerous.

Faults? Not really, though I could do without Parker's regular side-swipes at modern F1 and perhaps I would have preferred it to concentrate solely on the 1960s, but that merely reflects my own interests. Overall, `Races Faces Places' is another essential for lovers of the period and a worthy addition to a growing number of volumes of this type.

Great present for a petrolhead!
Bought this for a friends birthday; a great fan of motor racing. Had a look through before it was wrapped. Stuffed for of great and fascinating photographs. Jusr wish I had longer to read it as well!