Drag Racing has a problem...and you'd never guess what it is!

As someone who has made it his career to capture the things that happen and the drag strip as well as cover the news and happenings of drag racing, I am starting to see a disturbing trend that needs to change.

Since the beginning of the 2015 season my full time job has been as a photographer and journalist within the drag racing community. It was a dream job that I had no idea what I was doing when I decided to start the business with my best friend and business partner Ellen Eschenbacher. We had no idea how we were going to make money, pay the bills, etc. Well, eleven seasons later here I sit and I am wondering as a photographer and journalist, where do we go from here?

It is no secret that there are ebbs and flows within the motorsports world, and that is especially true within the drag racing community. Ten years ago there wasn’t a such thing as TikTok. We had Facebook and Instagram to share photos etc. There were, and still are a handful of media outlets in drag racing, including this one. What there are exponentially less of that I am seeing nowadays at the race track is actual photographers though.

There was a time not so long ago that the wall at the drag strip would be overcrowded with photographers trying to get the best image. It’s no lie, most races I attended you’d see at least a couple dozen photographers on the wall and maybe one to three videographers. While I certainly understand that times and technology, along with the type of content that people absorb is ever changing, the lack of photographers at these events should be disturbing.

Let’s take for example Donald Long’s No Mercy 16 a couple weeks ago. Both this and Lights Out have always been a staple for photographers to attend. I can tell you right now that while I was standing out there on Saturday night, there were less than 10 photographers on the wall including myself and the team from Chris Simmons Photography, who is the photo vendor at the event. In years past, there would have been at minimum 20-30 photographers out there.

We seem to live in a time where everyone wants to be a movie maker and that all they focus on is stuff they can put on social media for clicks. I am certainly no opposed to people like my good friend Kyle Christ at Straight Line Media doing that and he has excelled at that over the years. I don’t even really care, with the exception of safety, about the guys and gals that stand out there with a damn phone and create content. What I have an issue with though is that some of you think that photography is a dying breed that is bound to be put out to pasture.

Let me ask you something…are you hanging videos in your house or shop of your race car, your spouse, your kids? Are you creating hero cards from video? Are you using video to get your team shirts done? I’m willing to bet that the answer is no on those fronts. And I repeat, I have no issue with video, it is an important part of our industry that needs to be supported. What I am trying to figure out though is where have all the photographers gone?

For years I got told that I have the best job in the world, and there is a lot of truth to that statement. I have an amazing job that has taken me all across the country and captured some of the best images in drag racing history, worked along side some of the best sports and motorsports photographers in the world. My job doesn’t suck, but the part that does is seeing the dwindling of people interested in taking photos and the dwindling of companies willing to support photographers.

Our sport isn’t boring, in fact it’s one of the most exciting sports in the world in my opinion. It’s even more of a rush when you are just feet away from a car zipping past you at anywhere from 150-300+ mph. So why is it that people aren’t getting into taking it up as a hobby or profession at this point? Are people like John Fore, Mark Rebilas, me, and others just a dying breed or is there another reason?

One of the changes that I have seen in the industry is that companies will send their own photographer to an event to capture images. While this isn’t a terrible idea, are you really getting a good return on the money you spend doing that, versus branding with another photographer and getting usage rights to their images? I have had the fortune of having amazing branding partners over the years that I have been doing this. Companies like Menscer Motorpsorts, BC Companies, DMPE, UPR, FuelTech, Classic Graphix, Garret Turbos, and so many many more.

I’m not saying that all photographers have earned the right to do this with help from major companies. You do have to put in your time and build yourself in the industry before that part is warranted, but why is it that so many photographers are coming and going so fast? There are plenty of events that need to be covered, and yet I am willing to bet I see maybe 5-10% of all drag races that occur end up with photographers there to cover them.

We really as an industry need to look at what is holding people back from wanting to come out and enjoy my side of the wall when it comes to drag racing. I don’t have all the answers, and I certainly don’t what to see it come to the point where there are only 3 or 4 of us out there at these events. Even as a business owner, yes it would be beneficial if that were the case, but it’s not beneficial to the sport I love in the long term.

Thoughts?