Swiss photographer Michel Comte, who lives in Los Angeles, paints a very precise picture of the everyday life of the “Formula Uno”, characterized by sympathy and passion: Michel Comte took on this challenge in shootings on the most diverse race tracks on the continent and over a period of 15 years. How do you visualize an individual’s sense of speed? How do you capture dynamics in “still” images? How do you interpret unbridled power? Formula 1 gives speed a face. And the face of Formula 1 is Ferrari!

This resulted in highly topical, surprisingly photographic images, the likes of which have never been seen before of Michael Schumacher and team boss Jean Todt, but also of the racing cars or the legions of engineers and mechanics – a mixture of very personal portraits and exciting reportage.

In addition to his Leica, the photographer often chose a Linhof plate camera, which he values for its unrivaled 20×25 cm negative size, even if the camera may seem antiquated in the motorsport environment.
In order to bring out the high-tech materials used in Formula 1 even better, Comte – together with the specialists at the renowned Tricolor laboratory in Zurich – produced the photographs for the first time using the elaborate new “Dura-Clear” process, in which the large negatives are digitally exposed on transparent plastic film.

Michel Comte, born in Zurich in 1953, is one of the greats of his profession. World-famous for his fashion shots, star portraits and international advertising campaigns, in recent years he has also devoted himself increasingly to reportage photography, not only in the automotive and motor racing world, but also on behalf of the Red Cross in war and crisis zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia.

The exhibition in Munich is an international premiere:
Die Neue Sammlung – one of the world’s leading design museums, based in the Pinakothek der Moderne – is showing a selection of Michel Comte’s Ferrari photographs for the first time from November 2005 to January 2006. The exhibition can then be seen in New York, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

A large-format catalogue with approx. 100 pages will accompany the exhibition. Design: Yi Zhou, Paris.

An exhibition supported by LUISA CERANO GmbH Germany and VALDO Spumanti srl Italy.

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
04.11.2005 – 08.01.2006
The Face of Pace. La Scuderia Ferrari. Photographed by Michel Comte