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Larry Chen Has Seen It All and Done It All With Cars. Now, He's Put 20 Years of Photos Into This Book
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My taste in cars and, especially, car content is shaped by Larry Chen. That doesn't make me special, as I'm one of (actually) millions who were introduced to his work during those formative teenage years of life. Growing up in the Missouri Ozarks, I'd never seen the likes of what he captured through his Canon, and even now, after nearly a decade in automotive media, I'm still floored. He's so good he could write a book about it, and wouldn't you know it, he has.
Life at Shutter Speed is a 400+ page artistic compilation with 20 chapters, one for each year of Chen's career. It's laid out in reverse-chronological order, starting with his newest work that spotlights insane factory builds and automotive celebs like Sung Kang, while going back to 2005 and earlier when he shot SoCal events for fun. It's published by Carrara Books, a firm that is still putting out fantastic physical car media in today's landscape. This set with Sung Kang is definitely top-five for me. Photo by Larry Chen, courtesy Carrara Media
What I realized while flipping through the 2,500 or so photos is that Chen has shot cars and moments that nobody else could. Whether we're talking about a 1,300-horsepower Nissan concept that I'd only seen before in crappy press photos, or Ken Block's Hoonicorn Mustang spinning around a switch-flipping low rider, he's captured it all in his style that's often imitated but never duplicated.
Jeff Zwart, a longtime car ad producer, Pikes Peak racer, and talented automotive photographer himself, wrote this of Chen in his foreword for the book: 'Larry seemed to be everywhere on the mountain, and not just shooting the race action in a new way, but capturing the tension in the pits in a pure, authentic way that made me feel he was one of us.'
Really, if you cut that quote after the first five words, it would still be accurate. Photo by Larry Chen, courtesy Carrara Media
If the internet has been part of your car hobby at all in the past two decades, Larry Chen has influenced you. He's taken photos that you had as your desktop background, whether you knew it or not. That image of a Nissan S14 drift car that's been seared in your head since you were 14? He shot it.
Heck, Larry was even there at Fontana for GT Live 2004, the one-off Japanese Super GT exhibition that's effectively canonized amongst the Fast and Furious generation. I don't think it's any coincidence that it became 'the event that started it all,' in Chen's words. Fate would have it that an entire subculture's most prolific and recognizable artist would be in attendance at a show that's now part of stateside JDM lore. Photos by Larry Chen, courtesy Carrara Media
The idea that 'Larry seemed to be everywhere' was reinforced by a conversation I had with someone just last weekend. The person I was talking with brought him up in passing, and to be honest, I was surprised they were even a car person. I wasn't surprised to learn that they were a Larry Chen fan, though, because who isn't? Anyway, I mentioned seeing Larry at races over the years—the Long Beach Grand Prix, the Rolex 24 at Daytona—and wondering how he got to those spots around the track. I'd ask track officials that question after being denied access myself, and on more than one occasion, I got the answer: 'Well, he's Larry.'
Dang right, he is. The man himself. Photo by Larry Chen, courtesy Carrara Media
You can buy a Standard Edition copy of Life at Shutter Speed for $124.99. There was a run of $274.99 Limited Edition copies, but those all sold out. The book's official release date is September 29, though it's available for pre-order now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold. Courtesy Carrara Media
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