Barrier Daily Truth

Life in the fast lane and loving it

Friday, 17th February, 2012

TOP OF HIS GAME: Andrew Gosling amongst his works that have been collected for a book.

By Andrew Robertson

 Motorsports photographer Andrew Gosling is strapping himself in for another year of chasing the racing circuit circus - and he couldn’t be happier.

Gosling heads to the Phillip Island race track this week to cover pre-season testing ahead of the opening round of the World Superbikes next weekend.

It heralds the start of a hectic season of motorsport which will see him criss-cross the country photographing Australia’s best and brightest riders and drivers.

By the time the circus is over in mid December, Gosling would have taken tens of thousands of photos and clocked up between 40,000 and 50,000 kilometres of travel.

As the official photographer for the Australian Superbikes series, his pictures appear on everything from merchandise and series posters, to newspapers, magazines, billboards and posters.

Images taken by the talented lensman, who also covers the Australian MotoGP grand prix and some rounds of the V8 Supercars, are also used in print and online publications around the world.

It’s a big commitment made even more extraordinary when you consider Gosling also holds down a full time job in Broken Hill.

With virtually all of the various racing fixtures held on weekends, he uses up his annual leave to travel and cover events.

His success with the camera can be put down to his knack of capturing the extraordinary.

“I’ve got a style of photography ... I’m a story teller as opposed to just taking images. It’s easy to take a photo but to put it in context ...”

He explained that each race is different and that he tries to capture that uniqueness with his camera.

Some of his best shots don’t even involve a bike racing at full speed.

“I quite like the pit lane and the starting grid,” said Gosling who has included some of his best photos of 2011 in his first ever calendar.

The calendar is now into its second print after the first print sold out.

An even larger project has resulted in the release of a 2011 yearbook titled “Exhaust”.

Gosling described the difficulty he had trying to choose 75 images for the book from around 20,000 photographs he took throughout last year.

“I probably spent the best part of a month choosing images,” he said.

This year he will also contribute a limited edition canvas print to the Riders for Health Auction at the USA round of the MotoGP in Indianapolis held later this year.

Money raised for Riders for Health goes towards improving Africa’s transport system to make it easier for health workers to travel the country to treat people.

As often as possible Gosling, who has met dozens of Australian and international riders in his near 10 year career covering motorsport, tries to promote Broken Hill to the world.

Riders are regularly presented with books about the city, paintings or locally made items.

“We always promote Broken Hill,” said Gosling’s partner, Karen Burgess.

“So there’s little bits of Broken Hill all over the world.”