Customer comments on this selection.
 Simply brilliant
Many enthusiasts, and many highly respected MotoGP riders, consider the 240-HP, four-stroke 990s that raced from 2002 to 2006 to have been the pinnacle of performance and spectacle in racing--the most powerful and demanding race machines ever created, even beyond the 180-HP 500-cc two-strokes that made such extraordinary demands on their pilots.
This book sets out to make the point, and the result is a compendium of terrific photos of the era, year by year, captured by 16 great race photographers from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, professionals whose unique access to the men, machines, pits and tracks gives them the chance to create stunning imagery of the sport. Every reader will find favorites, and there are no bad shots. Nicky Hayden puts his own 2006 world championship into perspective in a thoughtful and insightful introduction.
No aspect of MotoGP is ignored, from the great tracks to the fans, the key men (no women, except for fans and umbrella girls--one of them naked under her wet tee shirt) who drive the sport, the portraits of many of the interesting characters, the agony of crashing and the conflicting emotions of riders who win or lose. Spectators may only see spectacle, but insiders know that top racers put their lives on the line every time they ride, even in practice, and you can see it on the page.
What is particularly striking is that Julian Ryder chose unique points of view and images unlikely to see print in any magazine or newspaper. These unusual views of the sport make the book essential for the enthusiast, a remarkable and memorable record of courage and commitment, daring and danger, the essence of great spectacle unmatched in sport.
Behind the 250-odd images reproduced with stunningly clarity on the page, one aspect of the work deserves consideration by readers: photographers shoot thousands of photos at every MotoGP event, and the ratio between great and `okay, interesting' and `no good' is one in hundreds, often demanding capture in a right-time/right-place thousandth of a second. Ryder has captured the spectacular, violent and fascinating aspects of the sport and its participants.
The book title is ironic. `In camera' is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as `in secret or private session, not in public,' but what could be more aggressively public that MotoGP? Yes, and we are the beneficiaries, at the track and in this magnificent book. Get it!
|
