58 10-4 Magazine / May 2026 The beauty of the American big rig is truly unique. Many of these trucks reflect their owner’s personalities. From the designs of the manufacturers to how the owners operate and use them, customize them, to the power under the hood. Many trucks have personalities of their own and some have become legendary throughout the years. While it’s one thing to see these trucks on display at a truck show, it’s another to capture the essence of their beauty in an art form through photography. As an ongoing series, every few months, 10-4 is going “behind the lens” to talk with some of the people who photograph and showcase the beauty of the American Big Rig in their own unique way. For the second installment of this series, I am going “Behind the Lens” with my longtime friend, Duncan Putman. I’ve known Duncan for nearly 35 years, and there’s no other photographer in the trucking industry who’s influenced me more or taught me more about taking pictures than Duncan. If you asked me to give you a top 5 list of my favorite trucking photographers ever, Duncan would be number one on my list. From Duncan’s eye for a unique perspective of posing a truck, the angles he shoots, and his use of gradient and star filters, his style takes the beauty of a big rig to a truly unique art form. Back in early 1991, when I was 15 years old, I had been reaching out to other members of the American Truck Historical Society (ATHS) who lived in the Indianapolis/Central Indiana area to meet fellow trucking enthusiasts. One of these individuals I called on was Duncan. From our first conversation, Duncan and I became friends. We had mutual interests not only for trucks, but Rock ‘n’ Roll, as well. Besides trucking, Duncan is an accomplished bass player, and when we started talking about that, bass players like Chris Squire from YES, session players like Pino Paladino and my favorite bass player, Mark King of the British band Level 42, along with other musicians and bands, it became a lively discussion, and from then on, we had an instant connection. To this day, Duncan and I still talk trucks and music. But Duncan wasn’t just another ‘truck nut’ when I met him, he was an accomplished trucking industry photographer and writer, contributing to a British publication called Trucking International (now known as Trucking). During his time writing for them, several of Duncan’s articles were featured as cover stories. Duncan was also a writer and photographer for John Stevens’ TRUCKS Magazine (which is no longer in existence), that many of you older truckers reading this may remember. Truckapedia: By Mark Harter Duncan’s interest in trucks began at a young age, telling me, “From 1953 through 1962, my father managed livestock farms when I was a child and the livestock trucks that visited the farms caught my attention, as well as riding in the farm’s own stock trucks, many times driven by my father.” To this day, if you ask Duncan what kind of truck/combo he likes best, it’s a livestock truck. Most of us have a favorite model and manufacturer, and for Duncan, “There’s nothing more beautiful than a Mack B-Model, but my favorite trucks are Mack H-Models, specifically H-67s,” he said. “It’s interesting that I was born in 1952, the B-model Mack debuted in 1951, and as I’m a bass player, the Fender Precision bass was first released in 1951, so I guess I was born at a good design time,” added Duncan. While being interested in music, Duncan is also quite into the visual arts BEHIND THE LENS
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