Jeff Bloxham Photography

My first brush with Motor Racing would have been watching Stirling Moss on TV, and my first trip to watch it live was back in 1963 at Crystal Palace Race Circuit as a ten year old, luckily I only lived about five minutes away from the track by foot.

After my first taste of the action, I was a regular racegoer at Crystal Palace attending every meeting till it closed in 1972 sadly without me, as I was forced to attend my cousin's wedding in Bath the day the racing finished in South London.

Crystal Palace was instrumental in many ways to the way my life has panned out, as in 1970 I had my first photograph published in Motoring News, when John Watson went for a gap at North Tower corner which wasn't there and put Ronnie Peterson and his F2 March 702 into the sleepers. I only sent the photo to MN as Autosport had published an after it all happened pic. This however was not my first experience of the commercial world, as in 1969 I sold my first two photos to a Lotus 7 driver seven days after he had collided with a Midget at Druids at Brands Hatch, that day two 5 by 3 photographs changed hands for 20 pence each.

The bug had bit, so I approached Graham MacBeth the BH Press Officer who pointed me in the right direction to obtain press passes by getting accreditation by working for a local newspaper , in my case the South London Press. They required local drivers in action and the photos to be delivered by Monday morning, thus my parents bathroom became my darkroom for many years to come, and without the help and support of mum and dad my career would have been curtailed as dad had also paid for all my photographic equipment.

Now that I was getting regular Press Passes (1971) I ventured out to all the obvious circuits Brands Hatch, Thruxton, Mallory Park, Snetterton, Silverstone, Castle Combe, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park, and sold photos to racing drivers and sent photos to as many publications as I could.

My income was ploughed back into more and better equipment buying my first Nikon F in 1973 and thus discovering sharp photos every time, and now 31 years on I am still shooting with Nikon Cameras, having progressed from the Nikon F via two F2's two FM's ,two FM2's ,an F3, an F4 , three F5's, a D1X and the latest acquisition a D2H having at last joined the digital world in 2001.

I joined Autosport as staff photographer in July 1977 and spent nearly 20 years there before leaving in early 1997 when the position disappeared after Haymarket Publishing purchased MN , Motorsport and LAT Photographic Agency, who I still work for on a regular basis, thus maintaining the connection with Autosport.

Currently I cover BTCC, Porsche Carrera Cup , Le Mans and major Historic Meetings especially the two Goodwood weekends the Festival and Revival ( probably the best race meeting in the world).

Well that is a potted history of the story so far, my target is to cover 50 consecutive Le Mans, so only 23 years still to go then, and so far I still maintain that I have had thirty five years of being paid to do my hobby!

Best wishes to all Jeff Bloxham.