Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Motorsport existed in a different world when Rainer Schlegelmilch first began taking pictures of racing drivers and their cars in 1962. "A friend took me to a Grand Prix because he wanted pictures for racing driver autographs, I was attending a good photo school in Munich and I took good portraits,” he explains. "I enjoyed it very much. That's how I met Jim Clark and Graham Hill. They were gentlemen and it was very open."

From the beginning, Schlegelmilch stood out from the crowd because he didn't work for a specific newspaper or magazine. "I just wanted to take good pictures and I enjoyed traveling, from Monte-Carlo to Le Mans," he says. "Travelling was my pleasure. In the week I worked in my studio and made money, which allowed me to travel as a free photographer. I paid my expenses myself and kept all my pictures. I didn't want to be a photographer for a magazine full time and the pictures I wanted to take were just for my personal enjoyment. That was very important."

Without a dictated brief, Schlegelmilch became known for his artistic approach that led to spectacular results. Throughout the 1960s, he shot only in black and white, sending pictures to prestige magazines but only to ensure press officers would give him a pass the following year. He switched to color film on a trip to the Targa Florio in 1969.

"Always in my life I never used flash for motorsport, unlike my colleagues," he says. "I waited until the light was good and found the right angles to get the correct reflections in the eyes. That's why I got the best portraits.

"With color, I found that you could show the speed with zoom [lenses], a moving car with moving colors, and I enjoyed that so much I did that until my last days in motorsport photography. That was my signature, which I enjoyed a lot more than sharp pictures anyone could take. To capture movement with colors in speed, was my kind of photography. Without that, I wouldn't have done it for so long."

He says the job became harder as attitudes changed, particularly among the drivers. "Everybody was more interested in each other back then," he says. "For example, Jacques Laffite was always joking around and we'd play tennis at the hotel in Italy. Jackie Stewart was always open. I did my first pictures of him in 1963 or 1964 when he was still in Formula 3 and captured his first F1 victory at Monza in 1965, and from then on he knew me because he saw me working hard. Even in recent times when he saw me carrying heavy lenses while he was walking around with executives from Rolex or Heineken he'd introduce them to me. He always has a nice word. A really nice guy who I'm really close to – and he's also one of my heroes. Back then drivers weren't running between the garage and the motorhome like they do today, from one hidden place to another."

Rainer chose to retire in 2012 after a half-century of photographing motorsport, marking the moment with the publication of his famous book 'Schlegelmilch: 50 years of Formula 1 Photography'. Now 80, he still visits Ggrand Prix, at Monaco or Monza, but to catch up with friends rather than to dash to the first corner to capture the start of a race. "When I look back it was hard work, but hard work is part of life," he says. "Of course you enjoy the other part, the lifestyle, a lot more! I had wonderful evenings and for many years went to the same restaurants where I was friends with the owners, from when they were 25 and then when they were 65. I have done the dream."