Portrait of David Coulthard, the British former racing driver and broadcaster from Scotland who competed in Formula One from 1994 to 2008. Nicknamed “DC”, Coulthard was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship in 2001 with McLaren behind German Michael Schumacher who successfully defended his title in a Ferrari. Coulthard retired from Formula One at the end of 2008, having achieved 13 wins, 12 pole positions, 18 fastest laps and 62 podiums in 15 seasons.
The candid portrait was taken at Goodwood Members’ Meeting, a ticketed event exclusively available to those who are part of the Goodwood Road Racing Club. In the portrait, David Coulthard is seated in a Mercedes Gullwing 300SL in the preparation area before moving to the start line. The taking of the image was memorable insofar that I recall an incident which occurred moments after pressing ‘click’. There was a woman with a camera at the Members’ Meeting (I do not call her a photographer for reasons which will become apparent), being given preferential treatment; I had seen her over the course of the day being escorted around the event, being special access. When David arrived at the Mercedes, she was there next to him while I was located, with the other photographers, in a designated area at the front of the car. I was in a kneeling position when slowly my frame showed less and less of David and the car and more and more of…. something. It turned out the woman in question had decided her privileged vantage was not good enough and she was moving to find a better angle; however with no situational awareness and oblivious to her surroundings she was walking backwards straight towards my lens, leading with her arse. I tried shouting at the woman to stop, which was ignored, so I held out my arm to block her advance rather than her walk into my face. She looked shocked, under the impression something untoward was happening, until she took stock of the situation.
The image above is the RAW (ie unedited) taken at ISO200, f/2.8 at 1/1250. The frame is a stop underexposed; perhaps due to the camera’s metering setting, perhaps due to something else. As you can see, the main elements in the composition, of David Coulthard and the Mercedes, are not colourful they are literally black and white. The most colourful elements are the fluorescent jackets worn by the safety staff which are not photogenic and distinctly distracting. Thus it was a straightforward choice to convert the portrait into black and white (which removes the orange jackets). While increasing the exposure also increases the refraction on the windshield, it is not enough to obscure the other classic sports cars in the background (the shape of the cars remains extant) which help give the portrait context.
My portrait is similar to the official photograph accompanying the news release of David driving the Mercedes 300SL by Goodwood Press and Media; their photographer must have been next to me. And in their photo you can see the mystery woman (just); on the right hand side of their frame you can see a hand, sporting a gold ring, holding a camera.
