NEW PERSPECTIVE
PHOTO ESSAY
Exploring Supercross
JAMEY PRICE
My normal day job is shooting all manner of car racing around the planet. From Formula 1 in Monaco to the Le Mans and Nürburgring 24-hour to the Indy 500, I’ve shot it all. I enjoy car racing, but I adore bike racing. In fact, my professional photography career started with an assignment for Ducati covering its Pikes Peak Hill Climb effort in 2012 with Greg Tracy and the late, great Carlin Dunne.
These days, I only dabble covering bikes but once or twice a year, usually in Macau, and I fall in love with motorcycle racing all over again. The color. The noise. The smells. Bike racing is so insanely visceral and wonderful to photograph. So, when a series of fortunate events led me to be asked to cover a few Monster Energy AMA Supercross races shadowing Chad Reed’s One Last Ride tour, I simply couldn’t refuse.
Supercross is tough to photograph: eight-minute practice sessions, short races, limited access. But it is rewarding. Looking through the images I made from Anaheim to Atlanta to Daytona over seven weeks, it’s clear to me how much I have learned from race to race. At each event, I made a point to photograph every possible 250 and 450 session, simply so I could learn the track and find the best spots to shoot Reed when he was on track.
I have loved photographing Supercross, but I’ve also loved becoming a fan of this amazing sport. I don’t know if I will find myself shooting Supercross again, but it has been an amazing adventure. ■
