LIFELONG car enthusiast Lewis Mitchell is looking for help from fellow fans in his bid to produce a book of photography of Scottish Motor Shows – as well as share images of auto events from yesteryear.
The 46-year-old’s interest was sparked when his dad took him to his first Scottish Motor Show at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow in 1975, when Lewis was just two. He said: “Some of my happiest childhood memories are of trawling around the Kelvin Hall and SEC with armfuls of car sales brochures.”
Since then, Lewis, from Stepps, near Glasgow, has amassed several hundred photographs of motor shows in the UK and overseas. He’s also dealt in motoring books, magazines and model cars for many years.
But he realised that, while there is a welter of professional photographs online from major motor events over the years, amateur photography remains largely private – and he wants to change that.
He explained: “Whenever you were at a motor show, there were people everywhere snapping away. Those pictures will all be sitting somewhere in a drawer. It would be great to get them out in the public domain for other enthusiasts to enjoy.”
So now he’s turned his hobby into a business and set up the website Motorshowphotos.co.uk, along with an associated Facebook group, where others can share their own amateur motor show photos.
The website also has a number of items for sale such as motor show programmes, new and second-hand books, and sales brochures. Lewis’s passion extends to classic cars and he has restored a number of older BMW models during the last 15 years.
He also swapped sides of the hillclimb barrier a couple of years ago – instead of being a spectator, he achieved a long-held ambition to compete in events at renowned Scottish venues Forrestburn and Doune.
Of his own publication project, Lewis said: “My goal is to produce a book in the near future on the Scottish Motor Show and I am keen that anyone with amateur photographs taken at the Kelvin Hall or SEC events gets in touch.”
Lewis is happy to buy individual images and collections or give credits to those simply pleased to see their pictures taken to a wider audience. In the long term, he hopes to produce further books on the Earls Court and Birmingham motor shows.
Email 250swb@motorshowphotos.co.uk to contact Lewis if you would like to help and for more information.
