Moments of truth can be terrifying, exciting, intensive or astonishing. But there is one thing they are above all: very intimate. The fact that Martin Schoeller manages to get stars to pose in front of his camera lens for extremely close portraits has helped him to become world-famous. He knows better than anyone else just how to capture snapshots of the soul with an almost microscopic attention to detail. He describes himself as a “chronicler”, always in hot pursuit of a split second of truth.
That was how it was in 2016, when he was working with Porsche to photograph the LMP1 drivers in the 6-hour race around the Nürburgring. The very moment after they had climbed out of the cockpit. These shots became highly expressive portraits of the racing drivers which then went on to grace the pages of Issue No. 378 of Christophorus. It was the first time in the history of the magazine that a single issue came out with six different covers. A special kind of homage to Schoeller’s artwork, which in turn led to Christophorus winning a whole string of publishing and design awards.
One of the photographs from back then also made it into the new photograph volume Close. There is a portrait displayed in there of Porsche’s brand ambassador, Mark Webber, from the 2016 photo session. The racing driver still has his balaclava on and is looking intently into the camera. This means Webber is displayed along with a series of other high-profile celebrities, such as Barack Obama, Taylor Swift and Lionel Messi.
Info
The 136-page hardback photograph volume, Close, by Martin Schoeller has been available since July 2018 from the Steidl publishing house (ISBN 978-3-95829-491-2).
