About Simon

"I'm fascinated by people who dedicate extraordinary amounts of time, money and energy to something they love. My photographs explore that passion through the worlds of land speed racing, burnouts and car culture."

As a photographer, I've always been looking. Watching the world. More than twenty years ago, I stumbled into something I never expected would become such a big part of my life. Like most good things, I wasn't looking for it. It found me.

One cold winter night, a friend invited me to a sanctioned off street drag meet. His street registered drag car was loud, fast, and probably not entirely sensible. I went along for the company and the experience. No camera. No agenda.

The cars were fascinating, but it was the people who grabbed my attention. A community of obsessives willing to sacrifice money, time, relationships, and sometimes common sense in pursuit of something most people would never understand. Their passion was impossible to ignore.

 That night became the beginning of a long love affair with Australian muscle car and custom car culture. More than twenty years of photographing the people, machines and stories within it. Along the way came a long association with Street Machine magazine, commissions for global advertising clients, lasting friendships, and a deeper understanding of the culture itself.

Photography often begins with curiosity. What kept bringing me back was the desire to understand what these machines meant to the people who built, drove and lived with them. A car is rarely just transport. It is identity. A reflection of who you are, and often who you want to be.

Over time my work gravitated towards two enduring obsessions: land speed racing and burnouts. On the surface they appear worlds apart, yet both are driven by the same impulse. Dedication. Risk. Belief.

 Land speed racing feels almost spiritual. Racers travel thousands of kilometres and spend years building machines for a single pass across a vast white salt lake. There is little fame and even less glory. What remains is the challenge itself and the pursuit of a personal goal. I find that kind of devotion deeply moving.

Burnouts occupy a very different space. Loud, chaotic and overwhelming. Tyre smoke swallows everything. Engines scream. Yet photography has a remarkable ability to reveal beauty hidden inside the chaos. Shapes emerge from smoke. Light cuts through darkness. A moment of destruction becomes something unexpectedly poetic.

What draws me back, and always has, is the people. The passion. The willingness to dedicate enormous amounts of time, money and energy to something they love.

The prints in this collection come from those worlds.

 Every print is produced on archival cotton rag paper using museum grade pigments, individually signed by hand, and made to last for generations.

If you've seen an image of mine elsewhere that is not yet available here, get in touch. There is a good chance we can make it happen.