Photos by Dave Friedman licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 and by Skye Schmidt

From the Ohio Cobra Club:

Mr. Dave Friedman

Automotive and Film Photographer

Automotive Journalist

Mr. Friedman’s Saturday evening, June 23rd, talk will offer fascinating first-hand, behind the scenes accounts of Shelby, Shelby-American's factory personnel, racing drivers and crew members.

After leaving the U.S. Navy, Friedman began attending and photographing local amateur sports car races around his native Los Angeles, at these races, Friedman met several young racing drivers, including Carroll Shelby.

In 1963, Shelby hired Friedman to be the official team photographer for the Shelby American organization. This position offered Friedman the opportunity to accompany the Shelby American team to races around the world. Friedman photographed Shelby's Cobras at three of the biggest endurance races in sports car racing: the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans and at various tracks around the United States, as well.

Friedman with camera in hand was able to document, in great detail, the entire development and production of Carroll Shelby's legendary Cobras. His historic photographs featuring Shelby's 260, 289 and 427 Cobras, King Cobra and Cobra Daytona coupe covers one of the most exciting periods in all of racing history. Friedman's photographs also captured the final development of the first American-designed and built race cars that dominated the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans race between 1966 and 1969.

Friedman also worked at 20th Century Fox as an assistant cameraman and later became a still photographer for film productions, where he continued to capture iconic images of American cinema and television. He worked on Steve McQueen’s last two motion pictures, Tom Horn and The Hunter as well as other such Hollywood classics as The Sound of Music, Grease and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In recognition of his professional accomplishments, Friedman is the only still photographer elected to the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In addition to his automotive and film photography Friedman has written over 30 books on automobile racing, covering a variety of classes including sports car road racing, Formula 1, Can-Am, Trans-Am, drag racing and stock cars. In addition, he has contributed photography to dozens more.

On Saturday evening, Friedman will also be offering for sale signed copies of one of his recent books

Photograph by Skye Schmidt