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»Ferrari 75«: Photographer Günther Raupp shows what makes the myth of the brand

2021-12-25T08:49:55.155Z


Maranello, engine power, Michael Schumacher: all of that is Ferrari. The automaker will be 75 years old next year. Photographer Günther Raupp shows what makes - or has made - the myth of the brand.


Günther Raupp has been seeing red regularly for almost 40 years.

He has been taking photos for the official Ferrari calendar since 1984.

85 percent of all models from the Italian sports car company were now painted red.

“Rosso Corsa”, Italian for “racing red”, is part of the DNA of the Italian sports brand.

For a photo professional like Raupp, the Ferrari color presented challenges.

Red is considered to be particularly difficult to expose.

How Raupp masters the challenge can be seen in his new picture book "Ferrari 75".

It shows a selection of the rarest, oldest and most exclusive Ferrari models that the German photographer has had in front of his lens for 38 calendar editions.

Sharp contrasts, hard shadows, razor sharpness and everything in backlight - Raupp has made a name for himself with photographs in this style.

Sometimes the Ferrari seems to be in the center of an optical typhoon in his pictures.

The special mood of his photos also impressed Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the sports car brand.

In 1984, Raupp, then 32, brought out a Ferrari calendar for the first time.

Self-published because nobody dared to approach the Italian luxury brand.

Enzo Ferrari was considered difficult to deal with.

But Raupp, who previously studied painting and art history and had caused a sensation with an audio-visual project about Venice in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, sought contact.

He sent one of his calendars to Signor Ferrari himself, to the company's headquarters in Maranello.

The "Commendatore" thanked him in a letter - that left the door open for Raupp.

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Raupp, Günther

Ferrari 75: special edition

Published by Delius Klasing Verlag

Number of pages: 312

Published by Delius Klasing Verlag

Number of pages: 312

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He then combined his artistic ambitions with a passion for the Italian brand.

The calendar is still self-published, limited to 5000 copies each.

Old copies are traded on Ebay for several hundred euros.

Raupp's pictures, which can be found in the gray area between art and advertising, have been exhibited several times - including in the former Völklinger Hütte ironworks, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Ferrrari brand in the coming year, Raupp has rummaged through his image archive from 38 years of Ferrari photography and put together a best-of that will now appear in the “Ferrari 75” illustrated book.

312 pages, 280 images, half a photographer's life in “Rosso Corsa”, the DNA of the Italian sports brand.

"The largest Ferrari museum in the world"

Ferrari, above all, is engine art from Italy.

Caterpillar's book is full of it.

On display are the inline four-cylinder 750 Monza from 1955, a twelve-cylinder 250 Testa Rossa racing sports car from 1958 and Michael Schumacher's world champion car from 2001.

In the book, they are seamlessly lined up as images - this is unimaginable with the actual models. Some collectors of such rare exhibits almost had a kind of rivalry, reports Raupp. He should know: The most famous Ferrari shops opened their garages for him - US fashion entrepreneur Ralph Lauren, former Microsoft President Jon Shirley or Robson Walton, ex-boss of the Walmart department store chain. Some let their multi-million dollar treasures fly halfway around the world for photo shoots.

Raupp photographed Ferrari rarities on Clint Eastwood's private golf course. Raupp maintained a friendly relationship with Pierre Bardinon, probably the most famous Ferrari collector of all, until his death. The French supposedly kept up to 300 Ferraris in his castle in Auvergne. "This illustrated book is the largest Ferrari museum in the world," says Raupp proudly. "The book is my life's work."

Volkswagen, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota, Maserati - Raupp photographed campaigns, brochures and magazines for all of them and many other car manufacturers.

At Ferrari, there was also passion.

He also staged new models from the Italians for his calendars.

For example the 800 hp Gran Turismo 812 “Superfast”, which made its debut in 2017.

In the conversation, however, you can tell Raupp that the older models appeal to him more.

"Today's rowdy design is not really my world," he says of the brand's newer vehicles.

Quite different are the models that Battista Pininfarina once drew.

The pen of the Italian designer enchanted Raupp.

The "206 Dino Prototipo Speciale" designed by Pininfarina's office once aroused Raupp's passion for the Ferrari brand.

As a schoolboy he discovered the yellow gullwing study in a magazine.

Ferraris on water, on land and in the air

Ferrari and Pininfarina are constant companions of Günther Raupp.

Not just because he photographed their cars.

He drove them too.

When he was 29, he bought a Dino 246 Spider - for around 35,000 marks.

"When I told my father about this, he would have loved to disinherit me," recalls Raupp.

Raupp's car made it onto the Ferrari calendar seven times in 38 years of calendar history.

After 180,000 kilometers and almost 40 years in Raupp's possession, he recently handed the car over.

His most photographed model was the F40.

Raupp combined the super sports car that Ferrari built in the late 1980s in a series of pictures with the elements fire, air and water.

The fire generated a machine that was specially made by a special effects team from the film industry, he recalls.

The water photos were taken on a small airfield west of Stuttgart.

There Raupp placed an area with an exactly three degree gradient under water - and let the super sports car race through the giant puddle.

Three electronically synchronized cameras recorded the passage.

“The fire brigade was there too - to refill the water.

One drive through used more than 800 liters of water, ”says Raupp.

Raupp, now 69 years old, is already working on the Ferrari calendar for the year 2024. "We are still filling up the 40 calendars," he says, also referring to his wife, who has supported him in his work right from the start.

And what's next?

"Then I'll get my license," says Raupp.

"Ferrari 75" will be published on December 10th by Delius Klasing Verlag and is limited to 1947 copies, in keeping with the year the brand was born.

Source: spiegel

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