I got a call from my old friend Mikey Harvey.. how did I fancy shooting a series of Alpine passes for a new premium automotive magazine called The Road Rat? Of course I said yes.
With three locations chosen, a couple of Michelin maps in the glove box and hotel and Eurotunnel reservations made, we hit the road.. After 5 long days, 146 caffè lattes, numerous marmot encounters and with 1987 miles behind us.. we were back.
The mountain passes were truly breathtaking and recording them was not a straight forward task. Instead of cropping a single super wide shot, I decided to shoot panoramics using the ALPA 12 STC, ALPA HR Alpagon 4.0/40mm SB17 and a nodal rail. The scenes before us were so vast that some of them required 12 stitched frames.
You can see a small selection of the work we made below, with more examples of the larger project here.
“Exquisitely printed on a mix of heavy gloss and matt art papers, Issue One of The Road Rat is a beautiful thing. 244 pages (it weighs around 1 kilo) it is at once absolutely of the moment - Lewis Hamilton, the Aston Martin Valkyrie - yet simultaneously timeless as we dwell on the making of the modern Ferrari and the decline of the Mercedes SL. It’s not a place for hot takes but long-form, writing every bit as considered as our photography, illustration and design.”
For The Road Rat magazine subscription information, head over here.
The opening spread.
The Col d’ Izoard. Highest point: 2360m. Number of turns: 49.
The Col du Galibier. Highest point: 2645m. Number of turns: 44.
The Col de la Bonette. Highest point: 2715m. Number of turns: 63.
