Beautiful Tractors: Portraits of Iconic Models

The Beautiful series has seen a plethora of handsome thoroughbreds step into the spotlight to have their looks preserved for posterity. Now our leading portrait photographer focuses his lens on a beasts of an altogether different nature.

Beautiful Tractors presents a fabulous variety box of the world's most magnificent agricultural machines, each primed, polished, and gleaming in all its robust glory. Stylishly lit against a studio backdrop, these superb photographs of vintage and modern masterpieces make for an impressive line-up of engineering prowess. Each photograph is accompanied by a directory, offering information on the machine's history, production and distribution, use and, of course, size. From the elegant early Titan (1915, and oddly reminiscent of Stephenson's Rocket) to the classic "big red tractor" looks of the prosaically named Allis-Chalmers "Model U" (1930), there's plenty here to stir the senses, whether you're a bona fide petrol head or merely nostalgic for a simpler world in which a straightforward piece of farm machinery could also be a feast for the eye.

Rick Mannen is Canadian and is a contributor to antique tractor magazines in the USA and the UK and has an impressive collection of international tractors.