Massachusetts based photographer Porter Gifford headed “down the shore” to document an eclectic event celebrating American racing heritage. He wanted to capture the personality and spirit of the 20’s-40’s inspired competition, The Race of Gentleman. He packed up his gear to join the fun and photograph this living history experience.
The Race of Gentleman is held annually on the Jersey shore and takes place over the course of two days. The whole event is dedicated to honoring racing culture of the past, so from the vehicles to the clothing, everything is in vintage style.
The vehicles involved must adhere to strict requirements ensuring historical accuracy of early American racing, and the people involved are happy to dress in ways that evoke the era. I focused, as much as possible, on creating images that brought to life some of the atmosphere of the age.
This kind of work is critical to my efforts as a photographer. At heart, I am a photojournalist, so I put a great deal of time into projects and stories – finding them, developing them, shooting them and showing them.
Initially, Porter had to finagle access into certain events that had stricter security measures, but throughout the weekend he was able to get everywhere he needed to get the kind of images he hoped for.
Porter is no stranger to these kinds of events; he has previously documented several of these micro-communities in a variety of contexts.
I have documented re-enactors of the American Revolution, re-creators of pre-17th century Europe, and most recently, Animé conventioneers. The Race of Gentlemen fit nicely into this pattern and offered a colorful example of the exceptional lengths some people will go to indulge their passions.
He hopes this project will generate excitement about these lesser known events and plans to send it out to automotive magazines over the next few weeks.
Porter learned a few things throughout the course of this project, but perhaps the biggest was the importance of skin care.
The most important lesson I learned on this project is that when photographing a vintage hot rod race over the course of two days on the beach in the blazing hot sun—don’t forget your sunscreen.
See more work from Porter at portergifford.com.