Brett is in town and dropped by the office. Aside from catching up on life, we spent a few hours scouring 3500 of his amazing pictures from The Horton Collection – there are hundreds of thousands in the collection. The pictures themselves are revealing of different times. Some are post WWII, with cyclists racing through still devastated towns. Others capture the innocence of a champion’s wife running along side him handing up a bottle.
They are black and white. Well they started that way, but typically have faded to yellow. The true richness comes from listening to my friend share the background behind each picture.
The details we all miss are vividly shared.
For example, in the pictures from the 1920’s the race director’s all wore white lab coats. It’s the kind of thing that is easy to categorize as part of the times, and not ask who are those guys in the white lab coats.
Oh my irony… white lab coasts on race directors who’s riders are doped… sorry Sammy but history’s not on your side… it goes so far back.
Back to the goodness of the collection and what we have planned.
We’re going to make at least 2 limited edition runs of RaceDay Bags. One will feature exceptional vintage photos. Not the typical guys with cigarettes, or the shot from the front of a group climbing. Those are great photos too, but we’re planning something more unusual that captures the romance. The other will be for the Eddy Merckx fans, pure Eddy like you’ve never seen him.
Damion is working on two really cool t’s featuring Brett’s pics. I’m excited to add these to our collection as well. Brett’s art will be the 3rd person who’s art we’ve licensed, Radical Rick and Derailled being the others.
It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
