Three decades since they were taken, the images from what is believed to be James Hunt’s final portrait photoshoot have been unearthed.
The 1976 Formula One drivers’ champion was captured in the summer of 1991 by Patrick Steel, then a 21-year-old photographer trying to build up his portfolio. Hunt died just two years later, on 15 June 1993.
Steel rediscovered the images during lockdown and has released them to mark the 45th anniversary of Hunt’s F1 title triumph.
He has selected 15 of the 30 photographs and they’re available to order now as limited-edition prints.
He explains that he was using lockdown to move office and organise his archive but couldn’t find the Hunt photos. Finally, in a storage box tucked in the attic, was an enveloped marked ‘J Hunt’.
“I could not believe my eyes, I had found them,” recalls Steel, “and as soon I viewed them, I thought, ‘Oh my god, these are absolutely stunning!’ It was hard to believe that the pictures had been sitting in a box, in the eaves of my attic for decades.”
The two rolls of negatives were processed, but at the time Steel couldn’t afford to have them printed, which is how they came to be put away.
So how did a budding young photographer have the chance to take these images?
