Rainer W. Schlegelmilch

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Rainer W. Schlegelmilch (* 1941 in Suhl , Thuringia) is a German photo reporter. He was above all as a photographer of international racing series such as the Formula 1 , World Rally Championship , World Sports Car Championships known.

life and career

Rainer W. Schlegelmilch went to school in Frankfurt and graduated from high school there in 1960. Afterwards he went to Munich to the Bavarian State School for Photography . As part of his final exam in 1962, he portrayed various racing drivers who competed there in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring . Shortly afterwards, he attended his first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps , Belgium. In 1964 he opened his studio for photo design and advertising photography in Frankfurt. Since Rainer W. Schlegelmilch was now very fascinated by motorsport, he continued to attend various car races and - in addition to his advertising photography - sold photos to renowned publications such as Auto Motor und Sport, Powerslide, ADAC Motorwelt, Sports Car Graphic, Car & Driver, Road & Track , Auto Revue and AutoBild. Until about 1970 he took photos exclusively in black and white.

From 1970 he also took color photos and his pictures appeared more and more frequently in calendars and books. Even large companies such as Philip Morris, Mobil, Shell, Champion, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and BMW use his recordings and the typical zoom shots as visual incentives to buy their products. Formula 1 in particular was and is Schlegelmilch's main field of activity. With around 470,000 slides or digital color images (since 2004) and around 15,000 black and white photos, it has one of the largest archives in the Grand Prix scene. He took 30,000 photos of Michael Schumacher alone .

Schlegelmilch is also the publisher of many illustrated books and calendars from various racing series. The construction of his comprehensive online archive of vehicles from various automobile manufacturers such as Aston Martin , BMW , Mercedes , Ferrari or Porsche and others is almost complete.

In 2011 Bernie Ecclestone honored him in Monza with a lifelong press photographer pass. To date, Schlegelmilch has visited and photographed over 600 GPs.

Many current and former racing drivers are friends with Schlegelmilch. The Lotus pilot Jochen Rindt, who died in an accident in 1970, was one of his closer friends. Schlegelmilch also got to know Juan Manuel Fangio and was very impressed by the aura of this five-time world champion. He is still friends with Jacky Ickx today.

In 2014 and 2015 there were various exhibitions with photographs by Rainer W. Schlegelmilch in Brussels, Königswinter, Salzburg and Vienna, among others.

A specialty are his motion shots , the so-called zoom shots . At every Grand Prix appointment, he zooms in with long exposures during training. He only tries to get the racing driver's helmet sharp, the rest is colored speed .

In August 2017 it became known that Motorsport Network , the world's largest motorsport media organization, had acquired the photo archive of the German photographer Rainer W. Schlegelmilch with more than 600,000 historical motorsport images. The Schlegelmilch collection will be integrated into the extensive archive of LAT Images , which became part of Motorsport Network last year. "His unique style, in which he has documented racing and Formula 1 for over 55 years, has made him the top reference in the business," said Motorsport Network Managing Director Zak Brown , who is also head of the McLaren Technology Group and thus also from McLaren Racing , which is the F1 racing team. Schlegelmilch's pictures will be featured on the new LAT website, which is currently under development and due to go online in November 2017.

Historically unique technical recordings

Schlegelmilch has attended the Monaco Grand Prix since 1975 and always took photos in the same place and always from the same angle. This point between Loews and Portier is already known by insiders as the ″ Schlegelmilch Curve ″. Based on these recordings, the technical changes to the vehicles and the resulting driving dynamics options can be studied intensively. The race engineers in particular like to use this.

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personal data
SURNAME Schlegelmilch, Rainer W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Suhl