The Atlantic Roofline — Bugatti Type 57SC Coupé Atlantic, 1937
The Atlantic, one of the most daring designs in automotive history — the riveted spine running along the roofline is not ornament, it is structure. The Aérolithe, Jean Bugatti's 1935 experimental concept, was built in magnesium alloy — a material that cannot be welded.
The solution was aviation-inspired riveting, the spine running along the roof and down the body where the two hand-formed halves meet. When Jean Bugatti built the Atlantic in aluminum — a material that can be welded — he kept the spine. Approximately 1,200 rivets. The structural necessity had become the signature.
Photographed for Divina Bugatti — Franco Maria Ricci's most celebrated automotive book. British Garage, Paris, 1991.
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Divina Bugatti — Bugatti Heritage Archive — Overview
The most celebrated automotive photography book of the twentieth century — commissioned by the most demanding publisher in Europe.
The Commission
In 1991, Franco Maria Ricci commissioned Roberto Bigano to document the historic Bugatti collection at the Musée National de l'Automobile in Mulhouse. Ricci had seen the first transparencies and said: "But they are lit." He immediately assigned all future FMR projects.
Ricci's rule was absolute: no non-orthogonal images. His response: "We never publish this kind of photograph, but this image is so beautiful that I must. Please don't do it again." The world's most demanding publisher broke his own rule for this picture.
The Book
Divina Bugatti was published in two editions of 5,000 copies each — Italian and French — at a price that made it inaccessible to most. Both editions sold out. For four decades FMR had set the standard for visual scholarship and editorial photography among curators and art historians on both sides of the Atlantic. Divina Bugatti was its most celebrated automotive title.
Six Nights in a Closed Museum
A 4×5 view camera. A lighting system built around a six-by-six metre white diffusion panel on a frame, with Arri Fresnel spots positioned behind it. The light reaching the car was not direct — it was the reflection of the lamp's shape in the screen. Moving the position of a spot changed everything: the line, the gradation, the surface reading. The technique had never been used on location before.
The session produced two images that did not appear in the book — for different reasons. Both are in this archive. Both went into a drawer for seventeen years. Both are among the strongest photographs Roberto Bigano made in Mulhouse.
The Atalante Silhouette
The Bugatti Type 57SC Coupé Atalante — here, the lighting system was pushed to its extreme, creating a single continuous line against the black — The essence of Jean Bugatti Design.
Franco Maria Ricci reviewed the transparencies. He picked the Atalante silhouette with two fingers and set it aside. "Questa no." Not objective. After seventeen years it was rediscovered and became Roberto's signature image. The image that Ricci refused, paid for Roberto Bigano's daughter's education in the United States..
The Atlantic Riveted Spine
The Atlantic roofline was photographed in Paris, at night. The assistant moved the Arri Fresnel without switching it off. The light found the riveted spine exactly as it should. "Stop." The photograph happened.
The surface was not cleaned. Years later, digital restoration made it possible. The accident of exhaustion made the image.
Photography by Roberto Bigano. Published by Franco Maria Ricci, Milan, 1991.
