RUST magazine: RUST#32

inspiration
w
UST first met Stéphane Gautronneau in
Thailand on the BMW Motorrad GS Trophy
back in 2016. Stéphane was one of BMW’s
official photographers and it was evident
from the beginning that he was no ordinary
photographer, in fact not the usual style for BMW at all.
Stéphane’s style is to look with the eye of an artist, rather
than that of the documenter. Looking for the emotional
connection, he was as much fascinated by the fabric of
life, the textures of Thailand as he was the action the GSs
were generating. Consequently much of his work from that
tour hasn’t been seen, but at RUST we gladly used one of
his images as the original cover of our GS Trophy special
edition.
Now Stéphane has produced a 50-minute film about a
travelling wall of death troupe. Called The Wall, the film
documents, or arguably ‘paints’ – in Stéphane’s unique style
– 15 months in the life of Don Ganslmeier and his riders (the
Motorellos) in their ‘Motodrom’.
‘Captain Don’ is a student of Ken Fox, the legendary
British Wall of Death rider (who trained Guy Martin for his
world speed record on the Wall of Death) and uniquely runs
four BMW R25s (which are now approaching 60 years old)
in his near 100-year-old wall. In short, even the four-minute
teaser we have here is a special view. The full-length feature
will be something else.
Stéphane is one of life’s outliers. Doing it different,
breaking the rules, and ignoring the usual commercial
constraints. But he has ‘an eye’, a unique creativity, and
he holds strong to his beliefs. We like that. And his work
inspires…
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