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| Classiche Sportive | |
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| A small country road close to Brescia. In the far distance the ear senses a sonorous grumbling sound. As it gets closer the ground underfoot begins to vibrate. Quite suddenly the fortissimo of powerful twelve-cylinder engines storms up – and quickly disappears again around the next bend; the racy bodies of the noblest racing cars of all time. They are in their element here. On roads such as these they can prove in sporting competition that their genes are characterised by racing – these are full-blooded entities, whose finely tuned muscles play their game underneath breathtakingly beautiful bodies. How exquisitely different they are to the oneness of modern cars – optimised with wind tunnels, uniformly shaped to suit global tastes and the comfort of the masses; these all-purpose cars, where everything has been considered, only character has generally been forgotten. Whoever has experienced them, been driven in the wild by a skilled hand, has become addicted to the valuables of racing car construction. Emanated from the passionate will to win of Italian hardheads like Enzo Ferrari, solidly formed with pressure to maintain Swabian perfection, or throatily distinguished in British sportsmanship: they are all alive, exuding the personality and soul of their genial creators and relating in powerfully pronounced stories of daring, passion, and the aesthetics of the untamed. Capturing this atmosphere is the stimulus of my artistic work. Far removed from sterile photographic studios, museums or concourses I show the beloved classics in their natural habitat: on the road and on the racing track, in pictures that capture the aliveness of the moment and draw the observer into the midst of the action – until he senses the smell of petrol and old leather, feels the tremors in the atmosphere and hears the deep roar of the approaching engines from a long way off… Alexander Kuhlmann
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