Life With Legends
by Justin Bell
It all started when…
I was born into a racing family.
But was probably the kid that wasn’t destined to drive fast cars for a living. During my teenage years, I loved being an art student, spending countless hours drawing and painting. At the same time I was racing Moto X and exploring the fabulous new world of girls. I did love watching Dad race though, and being a part of that racing family of strong, fast and very brave men and women.
It took until just after my 17th birthday that a couple of serendipitous events happened that made me realize how much I wanted to follow my Dads footsteps. So let’s fast forward a bit. I eventually had a successful racing career, winning races such as the Le Mans 24 Hour race and the 1997 World FIA GT Championship, having a total blast doing it and traveling the world which brought me valuable experiences and a lifetime of amazing stories.
However, despite the high speed excitement of driving fast cars, I always had that creative side that needed exploring. I had shut it out to make it work as a professional driver and now I knew I needed both to find more of a life balance.
So boom, a second career as a TV and web personality came next. And I loved it. Still do. I have been one of the faces in the pitlane for major TV networks at races such as Le Mans and Daytona and my quirky British sense of humor allowed me to get away with things others didn’t. In recent years I started Torque Media Group with my amazing partners Tommy Kendall and Jason Jacobson and we create wonderful content as well as being LiveStream experts and hosting events such as the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and others.
But something was still missing. The medium to express myself and the world as I saw it. But when I saw a Hasselblad medium format camera I knew I had found it!
Learning the craft was fun and frustrating and led me to the world of Leica cameras, where I really found my footing.
I like to focus on portraits of the men and women who inspire me in the world of speed. I am not a technical photographer (although I am learning all the time) but I think because of my skills as an interviewer, people open up to me and I simply transition that trust and access into the images you see on this website.
Life.With Legends is an intimate collection of my conversations with fascinating people that arguably are legends in the world of racing, cars and speed. These portraits are all taken at the time of the recordings and are unique to the shared moments between artist and subject.
Live fast and love.
A lot.
JB