In the early 50’s Peter Vincent saw a car that changed his life forever.
He was a 6th grader standing on the corner for junior traffic control when a lowered, drop top Merc pulled up with frenched headlights, nosed and decked with a smooth bumper and no grill. Needless to say, it made an impression. He has been hooked on cars ever since, and his passion stayed with him as he bounced from mechanical engineering to architecture and finally landed in his true passion, photography. Like that Merc, the act of creation in photography grabbed Peter like nothing else and never let go.
Peter learned photography from workshops with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, taking in their formalism and methodical zone system of visualizing, measuring and capturing images. As he honed his craft, he turned his camera to cars. Much like architecture and landscape photography, cars provided subjects with lines and shapes that appealed to his passion for disciplined image making. Bonneville provided the perfect setting to capture hot rods in their purest form, built by like-minded car enthusiasts with their own spin on disciplined craftsmanship.
Since those first images, Peter has published five books of photography and made a reputation for himself as the premier hot rod photographer. We talk with Peter about his extensive experience in photography, his own cars and getting to know early hot rod legends like Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt of the Rolling Bones hot rod shop.
Don't miss the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed feature of Peter Vincent https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/peter_vincent_photographer.html