David Friedman, Photographer for Shelby and Many others, Has Died

Story byDavid Friedman, Photographer for Shelby and Many others, Has DiedDavid Friedman, Photographer for Shelby, Has Died Dave Friedman/The Henry FordMark VaughnSun, March 1, 2026 at 12:56 AM UTC·3 min read

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• Motorsports photographer Dave Friedman has passed away at 87.

• Friedman worked for Carroll Shelby from 1962-1965.

• His career spanned several decades of sports car racing.

Dave Friedman, who captured the greatest years of sports car racing in America and Europe during the golden age of the sport as part of Shelby American, has died. He was 87.

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Friedman was the staff photographer at Shelby American from 1962 to 1965 and continued to shoot for Shelby and Ford Motor Company in the years after that, covering racing action at tracks all across his native Southern California, America, and Europe. He was in the midst of the greatest era of sports car racing the world had ever seen, and he kept the shutter clicking the whole time.

After service in the U.S. Navy, Friedman began attending and photographing local amateur sports car races around his native Los Angeles. Friedman, naturally, met the drivers, among whom was Carroll Shelby.

Gurney and Foyt at Le Mans. Dave Friedman/The Henry Ford

In 1963, Shelby hired Friedman to document the design and development of what would become one of racing's most dominant stable of cars: the Shelby Cobra, King Cobra and Cobra Daytona coupe. Those are the photos for which he is most well-known by car enthusiasts.

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In 1965, Friedman started at 20th Century Fox as an assistant cameraman, where he captured iconic images of American cinema and television. In recognition of his professional accomplishments in that field, Friedman is the only still photographer ever elected to the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. While he worked in the movie industry the rest of his life, he continued to document auto racing.

Carroll Shelby at the Daytona 200. Dave Friedman/The Henry Ford

Friedman also continued his relationship with Shelby, capturing the final development of the GT40, the American-designed and built racecar that dominated Le Mans between 1966 and 1969.

Friedman wrote over 30 books on automobile racing, including sports car road racing, Formula 1, Can-Am, Trans-Am, drag racing and stock cars. You can find the books here: Amazon.com: Dave Friedman: books, biography, latest update

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Before he died, he donated his racing photography to The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, where The Dave Friedman Collection now documents over 60 years of automobile races and racecars and includes photographs, slides, negatives and contact sheets, the museum notes. In addition, the collection includes files that detail specific races, including entrant lists, car details, programs, press kits, and published materials.

Cobra Daytona Coupe before the wing. Dave Friedman/The Henry Ford

The collection also includes material related to race teams and manufacturers including Ford Motor Company, Shelby-American International, Dan Gurney's All-American Racing, Jim Hall's Chaparral Racing, Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche, all shot by Friedman. You can see it all, after a few links (ask your kids to help) here.

There are even 60 audiocassette tapes of interviews conducted by Friedman as part of his research for the books he wrote. Interviewees include A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Jack Brabham, Jim Hall, and John Surtees, among others.

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