As i have mentioned before, I worked with Peter Vincent back when he still had a day job doing what we called “layout” for custom IC’s.  He always said he was doing layout until he could do photography full time.  Every year he headed out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Weeks.  He would photograph hot rods and write articles for car magazines.  He befriended quite a few owners and even talked some into letting him make runs on the salt.  Eventually he compiled several books of his work.  “Hot Rod: The Photography of Peter Vincent” had been sitting sealed on my to-be-read shelf.  I decided to break the seal after learning of his passing earlier in 2023.

“Hot Rod: The Photography of Peter Vincent” was his second book.  The first was more of a history of hot rod and car culture in general.  The second is more of a coffee table book.  Peter alternates between short articles by or interviews with people from the hot rod scene, then follows it with photos of their cars.  Virtually every one is set on a salt flat.  This gives a consistent appearance with a clean background varying from pure white to a pale blue or gray.

The captions for each photography are pretty minimal.  There is a section at the end with a thumbnail of every photo along with more details about when and where and in what context it was shot.  I would like to have asked Peter if this was deliberate to keep each photo page as minimalist as possible.  Sadly I will never be able to do that.  Talk to your friends today.

As I remember it, Peter had an early Camaro a daily driver.  It was painted light purple and the rims were solid.  Optimized for acceleration above all else. He filled it with super high test gas only available at the Pullman Washington airport.  Let’s raise a toast to pursuing what you love.