Rare Book Review: Monumental Senna

May each year and F1 GPs at Imola are always a reminder of the legendary Ayrton Senna. Monumental Senna was a limited edition (500 pcs) hardcover book that was released in 1994 not long after Senna’s death. At the time of its publication, this book was probably the most serious collection of Senna photos (many never previously published) contributed by a global array of F1 photographers including the renown Bernard Asset (his sweating young Senna photo adorns the book’s cover).

Although there is a multilingual foreword in French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Arabic, Russian and English, there is no other narrative text – this is strictly a photo book. Monumental Senna contains curated photos from a bevy of global photographers that are worth mentioning below:

• Bernard Asset
• Gherado Benfenati
• John Blakemore
• Ercole Colombo
• John Dunbar
• Yoshiharu Ebihara
• Ferriuccio Falletti
• Arturo Ferreira
• Jean-Francois Galeron
• Manfred Giet
• Yves Jamotte
• Dominique Leroy
• Eric Mullender
• Peter Nygaard
• Yasuhiro Okazaki
• Daniel Reinhard
• Alois Rottensteiner
• Narcisso Sabater
• Nigel Snowdown
• Harald Strebelle
• Crispin Thruston
• Patrick Wedes

While a large majority of the photos feature Ayrton Senna in either his iconic black JPS Lotus or red & white Marlboro McLaren racecar, there are also some excellent colour photos of Senna in his karting days and Toleman TG184.

There is a mixture of layouts from 2/3/4 photos per pages to full double page spread photos and thumbnail photos pages.

Although this book is now getting to 30 yrs old, flicking through the pages still has enormous appeal if you are a Senna fan – sure the photos are no longer exclusive or rare but this is a pure photo album. Despite it not containing any photos from other iconic Senna photographers like Rainer Schlegelmilch and Keith Sutton, it’s still a superb photo chronology of Senna’s career.

Due to its limited print run, Monumental Senna was often considered the rarest Senna book and at its peak, copies are re-selling above $USD1000, although its resale price has now moderated.

There is also a green cover version of this book with Senna’s helmet in circulation that is purportedly a limited edition first release of the book. One reader, Thierry, has kindly provided a photo (see below). If I have time, I’ll try to hunt down Universal Publishing to confirm.

Wow Factor/Money shot: Too many, although Ferruccio Falletti’s aerial photos of Senna in the MP4/8 and the engine exposed MP4/5B are fantastic.

Suitable for: Senna fans/collectors.

Limited Edition version (photo courtesy: Thierry)