For my AP Art-2d Portfolio class, I created this collection. Here are the questions they asked followed by my answers. Thanks for looking.

What is the central idea of your Concentration?

My concentration, “The Anatomy of Endurance Racing,” gives a more complete and in-depth viewing of racing. This is because it goes behind the scenes. While the cars out on the track are a big piece of racing, they are not everything. This is particularly true of the 24 hour endurance races from which these pictures are taken. I certainly wanted to capture the cars speeding by, but I also wanted to show the dedication of the fans, drivers as they struggle to stay sharp, weary mechanics trying to get their car back out after an accident, and the functional beauty of the internals of the vehicles. A lot more than meets the eye goes into endurance racing; I want to capture it all.

How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing the specific images, please indicate the image numbers.

To show the anatomy of endurance racing, my concentration is ordered to mirror a 24-hour race. As such, I begin by highlighting the heart of a racecar, the engine (image 1), and the head of a racecar, the driver (image 2).

The race itself begins in the early afternoon (image 1). The cars continue to run as the evening gives way to night (images 4-6). In the early hours of the morning, teams can be found rushing to get their cars back on track (image 8) while dedicated fans can be found keeping up with the race and eating the occasional soft pretzel (image 9). At dawn, the timing towers loom large as the drivers push ever harder with the end in sight (image 10). In the last few hours of the race, many of the cars are held together by nothing more than duck tape, tie-down straps, hopes, and dreams. Sometimes this works; sometimes it does not. The latter is exhibited by the fittingly named “Heart of Racing” car with its rear undertray flapping in the 100-mile-per-hour breeze (image 11). Finally, there is the all-important finish line. Having crossed it several hundred times, the top two cars can still be hundredths of a second apart when they cross it for the final time; the time when it counts (image 12).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.