Brummm Brummm

Words/Photos-Mike Blanchard

While at the One Moto show this year there was a lot of buzz about one of the vendors. Brummm magazine is the brainchild of two photographers from Munich, Hermann Köpf and Christian Eusterhus. “We met at Wheels and Waves and became friends,” said Köpf. “We have the same background and culture.”   

The name Brummm mimics the sounds kids make when playing motorcycle: brummm brummm brummm. It is a delightful bit of play in what is a serious publishing venture. The tagline for the magazine is Motorious Chronicles, which sums it up. Brummm is about documenting the world of motorcycles.  

The magazine is stylishly designed and laid out and hefty. The 2020 issue, which is No. 4, includes the work of: Atsuya Horii, Dennis Boussard, Hermann Köpf, Caylee Hankins, Ben Rosenzweig, Christian Eusterhus, Sven Wedemeyer, Bernhard Elflein and Heidi Zumbrun.    There is work from all over the world and it reflects the many facets of the moto world from TROG Santa Barbara to the Goodwood revival to adventure riding to a delightful series of photos of parked bikes in Japan.  

“We like international and strange”

In addition to the work of contemporary photographers there is a wonderful collection of vintage photographs of the motorcycle scene in England in the ’30s by Stanley Robertson Keig.   The photography takes pride of place in the front of the magazine with some essays that accompany the work grouped together in the back and printed in English and German.  

Köpf is a photographer and former editor in chief of a well-known German motorcycle magazine. He and Eusterhus, whose family is in the printing business, decided to do a magazine that was more purely photographically based. “We both select the photographs,” said Köpf. “We like international and strange. We are sure if we do a magazine based on photography there are people who will be interested in a collectable thing.”  

The magazine, which is printed once a year, features advertising but, given its size and the lavish quality of its printing, does not as yet make a profit, and they cannot afford to pay the photographers. However, Köpf and Eusterhus have created a community of photographers whose work they support and recommend to other clients around the world. In fact, Brummm has become a de facto photographic agency with design directors and commercial clients contacting them to recommend photographers.  

If you are into photography and motorcycles, Brummm is something you would enjoy. You can buy issues by mail directly from Brummm and the price new is very reasonable at roughly 20 Euros. There are issues for sale used from a number of online second-hand sellers, but the right thing to do is buy directly from the source and support a beautiful thing.  

Co-Creative Director Hermann Köpf looks pleased with the reception his magazine Brummm got at the One Moto Show