Bob magill: the golden era of motorcyclist photography

Bob Magill 1917-2005

Bob Magill was both a talented photographer and—even into his eighties—had a razor-sharp memory for race results and rider details from a bygone era. Magill shot for motorcycle magazines and newspapers in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Magill shot races and events all over California in the late 1940s using a Kodak Medalist and several other medium-format photography rigs. His work was widely used by period magazines and newspapers for fifteen years, then he seemed to drop out of the racing scene in the 60s when he was closely involved in the Apollo space program (via his long-time employer Rockwell). Magill was one of several multi-talented persons from the motorcycle industry who were pulled into the aircraft and space programs in the infancy of each; because, while Magill was renown as a shooter, he was also an accomplished machinist, built houses and worked in a Coast Guard sea-and-air-rescue unit in WWII.