JUTTA FAUSEL
GERMANY
From the autograph collection of Carlos Ghys

Jutta Fausel was born in Zeuthen near Berlin (ex East Germany), growing up with her parents, grandmother, rabbits, chickens, and a cat.
When she was eleven years old, she and her mother with 2 suitcases crossed the border to West Germany using "borrowed" West German passports. They traveled by truck to the town of Goppingen near Stuttgart to join her father.
There, she finished school and became interested in photography. She worked in a local photography shop to learn all she could about the business, and went to special graphic and photo school part time for 3 years.
She was always interested in automobiles, and via her father's interest in racing, she saw some car races on television. Racing really captured her attention. So, while still preparing for a career in photography, she began to attend races.
The first race she attended was in 1961 for Formula One and Two cars at the Solitude circuit near Stuttgart. Sitting in the grandstand, she took a few pictures using a friends snapshot camera. The images of the cars were small, but, to her, it was clear that this was what she wanted to do.
A year later for the Solitude race, she borrowed another camera, this time from her boss at the photo shop. It was a Leica with a telephoto lens. Sneaking into the track, and staying out amongst the trees, she took photos of the cars, this time with much better results. Becoming bolder, the next day of the event, she got into the paddock area and there began to take pictures of the Formula One drivers, crews, and cars up close. As she says "It was fascinating". A life's passion was born.
She started going to hill climb races, taking photos and competing herself using a friends car. From the beginning, Jutta has wanted to share every picture with the people who were in the picture, and as a form of greeting, she would give the pictures she took to her new friends in the paddock area. One day, a nice man asked her if she could send some photos to a new magazine named "Auto Mobil Sport". This was the first and only racing magazine in Germany at that time, and she was paid 5.- DM per photo published. It was the start of her professional career.
She purchased her own camera, and began to attend more races in Germany, including the Formula One race at the famous Nurburgring. Her skills improved and soon she was getting official "Credentials" as a photo journalist, selling photos to an increasing number of publications. She is published in more than 80 books, and while images of the cars are very well known, her images of the personalities are a reflection of her passion for the people of the sport.
Purchasing better cameras, and lenses, traveling to Formula One and Two races all over Europe and eventually the world, photography and racing became her life. She has also photographed World Sports Cars, Can Am Cars, Formula 5000, CART, Baja, and many others.
She also found time during the auto racing off season to photograph World Cup Skiing from 1977 to 1989. She remembers many times sliding carefully down the legendary IceHang at the Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbuhl, Austria (with all her cameras on her back!). She still loves to ski.
She pursues her passion to this day, living in California and concentrating on Champcar and Historic Formula One racing. Along the way she has owned her own Flower Shop, married (John Ward, race car engineer, naturally), and stays very busy filling requests for images from her vast archive.

2011 MOTOR SHOW ESSEN
GERMANY
Having fun with Kurt AHRENS, Jutta FAUSEL, Udo SCHUTZ and Hans-Dieter DECHENT.