John Edwin Mason: Documentary, Motorsports, Photo History

We the People: Looking at the Way We Live Now

I'm happy to announce that several of my photographs are included in We The People, an exhibition of documentary and portrait photography at the University of Virginia's Arthur J. Morris Law Library that will be on view until June 2018. The exhibit showcases the work of 15 photographers who explore... Read more →

Bunny Burkett and the 48th Annual Easter Sunday Funny Car Show, Eastside Speedway

For the last decade or so -- the amount of time that I've been documenting the quirkier ins and outs of American car culture -- Easter Sundays have found me impaled on the horns of a dilemma. (Ouch! is right.) Do I go to church to praise the Risen Lord... Read more →

Motor Sports & Diversity in C-ville Weekly

As couple of weeks ago, Kyle Daly, a reporter for C-ville, a weekly newspaper, interviewed me in connection with an article that he was writing on racial diversity in motor sports. The story, "Speed is Colorblind," came out yesterday, and it's terrific. You can read it here. (By the way,... Read more →

How to Shoot Like an Historian

An historian with a camera? That's a bit like a fish with a bicycle, isn't it? After all, a camera isn't a quill, a pencil, or a microfiche reader. It's not a computer or even an audio recorder. It isn't, that is, a tool of the historical trade. Don't get... Read more →

Car Culture, Continued: The SBRA Bracket Finals, 2010, at Eastside Speedway

Driving over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Eastside Speedway, after having been away for several months, feels like going home -- in an odd sort of way. My attachment to the place has nothing to do with family (although I've made a lot of friends there, over the last few... Read more →

SBRA Bracket Finals, Eastside Speedway: Three Days at the Races

Hundreds of drag racers (and their families and friends) turned out for the Southern Bracket Racing Association's championship finals at Eastside Speedway,in Waynesboro, Virginia, on 2 to 4 October. This annual event draws the best racers from six small, grassroots dragstrips in Virginia and Maryland. Tracks like these, and the... Read more →

The Legendary Bunny Burkett, Pioneering Woman Drag Racer

Dolly Parton. No doubt about it. If you were going to cast someone to play Bunny Burkett in a Hollywood movie about her life, Dolly would be your only choice.* Two legendary women, one that you’ve heard of, one that you probably haven’t. Bunny and Dolly both grew up poor... Read more →