Lead Photographer

James Hedley

Documentary motorsport photographer for Speed & Spirit Media, covering the people, machinery, atmosphere and defining details of professional racing.

Instagram: @agramofcars

Co-Founder and Lead Photographer

Every image begins with observation.

For James Hedley, motorsport photography begins long before the shutter is pressed. It begins with the changing light across a corner, the concentration behind a visor, the mechanics gathered around a silent car, or the sponsor decal that must remain visible even as the machine disappears into the speed of a racing lap.

Originally from the United Kingdom and now based in Southern California, James is the co-founder and Lead Photographer of Speed & Spirit Media. He runs the independent motorsport photography and editorial publication alongside his wife, Chloe Hedley, who serves as Editor-in-Chief. Together, they cover major racing series and events across North America, including GT America, GT World Challenge America, IMSA and INDYCAR.

British beginnings

James’s connection to motorsport began years before he ever considered placing a camera in his own hands. Growing up in the United Kingdom, racing was part of the rhythm of family life. There were early mornings hiking through Kielder Forest to watch the British Rally Championship, family journeys to Knockhill for the British Touring Car Championship and Formula One calendars hanging on the walls at home. Weekends were often spent watching Formula One, the Dakar Rally and DTM on Eurosport.

Motorsport became so deeply embedded in the Hedley household that the name of James’s youngest sibling was inspired by Jordan Grand Prix’s memorable victory at Spa-Francorchamps in 1998.

The camera, however, belonged to his father. James grew up watching racing through his own eyes while his father documented what happened around them. Photography was present, but it was never something James imagined would eventually become part of his own identity.

Photography takes shape

That changed in 2020. During a difficult chapter following Chloe’s illness in 2018, James began experimenting with the photography modes in Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon. What started quietly, as a creative outlet and a way to bring something positive into an uncertain period, soon revealed an instinctive understanding of composition.

James would create an image and send it to Chloe. She saw more than a screenshot. She saw the way he positioned a car within the frame, anticipated movement and used light to create atmosphere. She recognized an ability in him that he had not yet recognized in himself.

Without telling James, Chloe created an Instagram account to share his work. The audience began to grow. People responded not only to the cars, but to the way James photographed them. When the account became too active for Chloe to manage by herself, she finally told him what she had done. That decision became the unexpected beginning of his career.

James’s virtual photography attracted attention from racing teams, sponsors and figures within the automotive industry. A Motul brand manager used his images as backgrounds for video calls and within news articles. Another defining moment came when James helped members of the Forza community recreate a BMW M8 racing livery ahead of the car’s appearance at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

From virtual circuits to the racetrack

The work was created inside a virtual environment, but the principles behind it were already real. James was learning to study the lines of a car, understand how light shaped its bodywork and recognize the difference between simply recording a vehicle and giving it presence.

When opportunities eventually arrived to photograph IMSA competition at the circuit, James stepped into a world that was both familiar and entirely new. The cars were no longer waiting to be positioned. The light could not be adjusted. A moment lost at racing speed would not return in precisely the same form.

Yet the visual instincts remained. The compositional discipline developed through Forza transferred naturally to live motorsport. James already understood how to leave space for movement, how to use the architecture of a circuit and how to anticipate where a car would become most expressive within the frame. The virtual camera had taught him how to look. The racetrack taught him when to act.

A documentary approach

Today, James approaches motorsport photography with a documentary perspective and a deep respect for every person represented within an image. His work is not limited to the car at the center of the frame. It considers the driver inside it, the mechanics who prepared it, the team that operates it and the commercial partners whose support allows it to compete.

Representing sponsors clearly and thoughtfully is central to that approach. Motorsport does not exist without partnership, and James believes those relationships should be treated as part of the story rather than as background decoration. The same care extends to the identity of each team, driver, manufacturer and circuit he photographs.

Authenticity is equally important. James avoids the heavily oversaturated treatment often applied to contemporary motorsport imagery. Colors are kept natural and true to life, preserving the character of the car and the atmosphere of the event as they genuinely appeared. If the color does not feel honest, he will reject the photograph, even when the composition itself is strong.

He is equally willing to wait. Sometimes that means remaining at a corner for another lap because the light is beginning to move across the track. Sometimes it means watching the rhythm of a pit lane until the mechanics, machinery and environment briefly align. James does not chase spectacle for its own sake. He looks for the moments in which motorsport reveals its character.

His ambition is to create images that make established racing enthusiasts stop and look more closely, while also reaching people who have never considered themselves motorsport fans. Friends with little interest in racing still ask to see his latest photographs. A friend who works as a stunt driver describes the images as art, an assessment Chloe has shared from the beginning.

That ability to reach beyond the traditional motorsport audience sits at the heart of James’s work for Speed & Spirit Media. The objective is not simply to document which cars attended an event or who reached the chequered flag first. It is to preserve the atmosphere, effort, identity and human presence that give racing its meaning.

Despite how far the work has travelled, one ritual remains unchanged. James still sends his photographs to Chloe first.

It is the same exchange that began when the camera was virtual, the audience did not yet exist and the only purpose was to create something meaningful during a difficult day. What started between the two of them has since developed into a shared publication, a professional body of work and a distinctive way of documenting the sport they have built their lives around.

The circuits are now real. The cars pass at full speed. The photographs reach a much wider audience. But every image still begins in the same place.