Kit Palmer | October 19, 2022
Cycle News Observation Check
COLUMN
Hidden Classics
You might have noticed something a little different in this issue of Cycle News. In our Captured section, we now have a spread called “Classic Captured,” which we plan to make a regular thing.
This publication has been around for a few years, since 1965, to be exact, when it was called Motorcycle Journal. The name was changed to Cycle News not long afterward. Since then, we’ve been filling up filing cabinets upon filing cabinets with thousands of photos, and the truth is only a fraction of those photos ever saw the light of day, and you can take that literally, too. They’ve been kept in the dark for many years. Not only have they never seen the light of day but have never made it to print. Only their creators may have taken a glance at them not long after they were developed in their homemade dark rooms (like I did) or given to our own Cycle News lab tech guy to bring to life. Many great shots were passed up so a photo of the winner could be featured in the newspaper. After all, back then (and even now, really) it was about the “news,” not the best photo. As a result, the photo chosen for publication might not have even been the best one, but it was the one of the winner, and that’s what always made it to the pages of Cycle News. That awesome photo of the fifth- or 10th-place guy never had a chance. Nope, that photo (or photos) most likely got stuffed into the dark filing cabinet and never seen again.
Cycle News relied on black and white photography in the day. It was easier and, more importantly, quicker to develop and cheaper to print than color, so that’s why most of the “classic” photos you seen in Cycle News these days are black and white. In our eyes, black and white still look just as pretty as color. There really is something special and timeless about a really sharp black and white photo.
“…the photo chosen for publication might not have even been the best one, but it was the one of the winner, and that’s what always made it to the pages of Cycle News. That awesome photo of the fifth- or 10-place guy never had a chance. Nope, that photo (or photos) most likely got stuffed into the dark filing cabinet and never seen again.”
Cycle News staffers in the black-and-white days were given approximately three or four rolls of film from our lab guy (who personally rolled them) to shoot a full National Motocross because that’s all a “good” photographer needed. So, we’d leave the office with four rolls of film in pocket and off to the Nationals or major races we’d go. Remember, each roll only offered 20 exposures, so you had to plan your shots wisely and carefully. Even though the lab guy assured us there were 20 shots in each roll, every now and then you’d run out at 17 or 18 just when you were saving the best, or “money,” shot for last. Talk about frustrating. You bet we had words with our lab guy come Monday morning.
So, basically you had 40 shots to get the job done, to shoot an entire weekend. I couldn’t imagine being given just 40 opportunities to shoot a Supercross or Pro Motocross today. There was no “spray and pray” back then. You had to get the shot every time you pressed the button. You didn’t waste a single exposure.
To save time on press day, our lab guy used some kind of quick-develop proof sheets which were life savers at the time. Unfortunately, we found out years later that these proof sheets would fade, making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify what was on the negatives that were taped to the back of the now brownish-white grids. So, to this day, we have hundreds of old proof sheets and no idea what’s on them. Of course, we were supposed to write on the back of the proof sheets to ID where and when the photos were taken and who took them but too often this didn’t happen—I’m guessing we were too busy because it was a Monday, and after all, you’d never not know that wasn’t the 1985 Seattle Supercross. C’mon!
How quickly we forget.
One word can describe our filing system back then—crap. When I started at Cycle News in 1985, our filing system was already a mess. For a while, our photos were organized by issue. You know, issue number 37, Volume 14, 1978. Try to find a specific photo years later like that? Let’s just say it didn’t work. Then it changed to filing photos by types of racing, then it changed to by photographer, then it changed to just throwing everything into one pile on top of the filing cabinet. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but I have seen some piles that I have no idea who, what, when, where, why or anything about them. But, man, some of those piles have some cool shots in them that I don’t think more than a few eyes have ever seen.
To be honest, our filing system nowadays isn’t that much better. From negatives to color slides, to CDs, to thumb drives, to SmugMug, to Dropbox, hundreds, and now thousands of photos each weekend are just hard to effectively catalog and manage, but we try our best.
“When I started at Cycle News in 1985, our filing system was already a mess. For a while, our photos were organized by issue. You know, issue number 37, Volume 4, 1978. Try to find a photo years later like that?. Let’s just say it didn’t work. Then it changed to filing photos by types of racing, then it changed to by photographer, then it changed to just throwing everything into one pile on top of the filing cabinet.”
Often times, I stumble across some of our old files, and I keep promising myself to get these photos out there so everyone can enjoy them, rather than having them sitting in the dark in a file cabinet or crumbly cardboard box buried in the corner of the office.
So, welcome “Classic Captured.” Some amazing never-before-published photos are about to come to finally see the light of day. Hope you enjoy them. CN