>From the Daily Times (UK) Thursday, June 28, 2001

Louis Klemantaski

LOUIS KLEMANTASKI who has died aged 89, was the doyen of motor
racing photographers and the greatest exponent of the art.

Many of Klemantaski's greatest images were captured before cameras
were equipped with motor drives, and taken inches from the track. He
followed the Grand Prix circus around Europe in the pre-war era,
seeming always to choose the best spot and the ideal moment for his
pictures.

"I knew enough about racing," Klemantaski later explained, "to know
what a car would be doing that critical fraction of a second after I
pressed
the button."

Louis Klemantaski was born on February 12 1912, at Harbin in
Manchuria, the son of "rich but honest" parents. His mother was Russian
and his father a Dutch national who had grown up in Hull, but came from
a family that left Poland in 1815 after the suppression of nationalism
following the defeat of Bonaparte.

The family business in Harbin, run by his father, included an agency for

Willys-Overland cars and, having learnt to drive at the age of 10,
Klemantaski had a life-long passion for automobiles and everything
associated with them.

After attending schools in both Harbin and north China, the 16-year-old
Louis came to England by the Trans-Siberian railway. Almost all the
Klemantaski family were by then living in England; Harbin had been
badly affected by plague, and Klemantaski had memories of "carts piled
with dead bodies" passing though the city.

Klemantaski graduated from Kings College, London, but soon
abandoned plans for a career in the City. Instead, his consuming
interest
in cars took him to Brooklands where he spent the 1930s racing
supercharged single-seaters and, increasingly, taking photographs of
cars during races and selling them to their drivers.

He also worked as a mechanic, and was once asked to fit an adjustable
scoop to the passenger side of a Singer Le Mans for a raffish customer.
After he asked the purpose of this modification, Klemantaski was told:
"Oh, don't you see, old chap? If it's raining and I have a girl in the
car, she
gets soaked and it gives me an excuse to take her to my flat to strip
and
dry off. . ."

In 1933, Klemantaski had a serious accident which permanently
damaged his leg. He then took over as secretary of the Junior Racing
Drivers Club, probably the first racing driver training scheme in the
world,
but gradually built on his talent as a photographer.

At the outbreak of war he joined the Department of Miscellaneous
Weapons Development at the Admiralty, where his photographic
techniques were considered invaluable in assessing the potential of
new weapons.

One notable example was the "Panjandrum", a spinning wheel which
fired out rockets in all directions when it was directed at the enemy
lines.
It was not an unqualified success: in the last attempt to make it work,
the
"Panjandrum" went out of control and turned back towards the group of
admirals, and Klemantaski himself, who had assembled to watch its final
trial.

More successful was Klemantaski's involvement in the development of
Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb. Here his role was to take photographs
which would allow an assessment to be made of the dimensions,
trajectory and speed at which the bombs were most likely to be effective

in breaking the dams.

After the war Klemantaski concentrated entirely on photography,
continuing the portrait work that he had started before the war, and
including among his sitters Margot Fonteyn and Igor Stravinsky.
Klemantaski also renewed his interest in motor racing and once again
followed the circuits round Europe, photographing Fangio, Gonzales,
Moss, Hawthorn and their contemporaries.

By this time his dynamic pictures and excellent taste had attracted the
patronage of motor manufacturers, who paid handsomely for his
services.

Anxious to improve his understanding of the sport, Klemantaski entered
three Monte Carlo rallies, often with his friend Ian Appleyard, and
subsequently took part in five Mille Miglia - Italy's 1,000 mile race on

public roads - as navigator, first with Reg Parnell in an Aston Martin
and
subsequently with Peter Collins in his Ferrari 860 Monza.

In 1956, he and Collins finished second in the Ferrari and in 1957,
Klemantaski's last Mille Miglia, the pair came within an ace of winning
before a broken axle ruined their chances. Collins and Klemantaski also
won the circuit of Sicily, which packed 10,000 corners into 671 miles.

In the meantime Klemantaski pursued his abiding interest in the arts and

began to photograph ballet, opera and other artistic events.

Klemantaski was a great connoisseur and gourmet with a serious
knowledge of wines and food. In his tours of the continent during the
1950's, in a small Fiat 1100 nicknamed "Plugly", he always took the
opportunity to eat well, but eschewed Michelin-starred restaurants,
favouring family-run estaminets. His favourite restaurant was Ricordeau
at Loue near Le Mans, at which he was always to be found during the
24-hour race.

Klemantaski was a popular, dapper figure, distinguished by his bow tie
and neatly trimmed imperial. After his final retirement in 1982,
Klemantaski and his wife moved to Coombe Hay near Bath. In 1997, he
was invited by Ferrari Equipe to repeat his Mille Miglia of 40 years
earlier -
but as a passenger, and not at racing speed.

His publications included an autobiography Klemantaski Himself (which
was published in 1998 in two editions, one limited to 300 copies and
priced at £500), Klemantaski and Ferrari and Klemantaski and Aston
Martin.

He married, in 1955, Ursula Staples Smith, who survives him. There
were no children.

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