Surfers – A few more words on my new portrait project

Tom, Hawaiian surfer

I wanted to talk more about my new project: Surfers. As I said in my previous post I’m working on a series of portraits of surfers, mostly in California. This is not the usual tribute to pro surfers, or to the cool surfing spots in the world, or to the surf lifestyle, which is beautiful, of course, but not always true.

Surf is a lot more. And this project is my tribute to this MORE. Surf is made of real people, like you and me, who share the same passion. This passion makes them wake up in the early morning, maybe on a cloudy day, in winter, and drive two hours to get to the right spot. It’s very different from the idealized sunny day, where the water is warm and the girls are pretty. Most waters in California are cold, especially considering that winter is the best season for surf. So you have to wear your wetsuit, and maybe you can consider the water to not be “that cold” (I still can’t). Anyway, these people make a lot of sacrifices to fulfill their passion. For these reasons I’ve decided to do these series of portraits with a different style from my own, which is usually clean and polished. I wanted to be able to show the realness of these people. So, to capture it, I had to shoot them when they just came out of the water. I wanted to get the EXPERIENCE they had that day, surfing. If anybody of you have ever surfed, then you must know that the experience stays alive for a couple of hours after it: it’s a feeling of peace and accomplishment, that I’ve only experienced when surfing or swimming. There something magical in being in the water for long, the mind gets clear, and everything vanishes.

This is what I wanted to capture.

So, this is how I met Tom, from Hawaii, where the water is really warm compared to here. I’ve seen him coming out of the water, and I rushed to stop him. We started chatting. He was visiting a friend, and on this cloudy morning, he decided to grab a wetsuit and a surfboard, and went to Emma Wood beach, close to Ventura. There’s something really cool in his story, in the fact that even if he was travelling outside of his country, he decided to go surfing, alone. 

That was the moment. Can I take a few portraits of you, Tom?

Sure.

Tom, Hawaiian surfer

P:S. In the next weeks I’m going to post more photos from this project, and I’ll also go out shooting again, stay tuned.

Jeff Clark

I have the pleasure to work for Jeff Clark part-time (you can check his website here). He’s a great photographer and friend. He has a great project going on: shooting bike racers in a unique way. In fact, he shot them right after they’ve finished the race, tired, sweating and still heavily breathing from the strain. In addition to this he used a white background so that you think they are in a studio. But guess what, you can see where they are from their eyes or from the visor on their helmet. And I love this. Totally unique. By the way, Lance Armstrong is between those racers…

This is an editorial portrait I’ve shot in his old studio. The place was already cool to me but he moved into a new studio which is “so rad”, as he say. And I agree.

The art of flight

I had the privilege of flying yesterday morning over the city I currently live in, Santa Barbara. And this has been possible thanks to my good friend Julien Lecomte, who just had his license.

After a night of bad sleep, I got up at 6 AM, packed my photo gear and drove to the Santa Barbara airport, where he was waiting for me. After sneaking in the airport (you just open a small door with a card and you are in. I wish you could do that at LAX too!), we prepared the airplane (especially me), filled it with fuel and took off. By the way, don’t go to refill you car at the airport, it’s more expensive…

It was an amazing experience that everybody should try at least once in their life. Plus, I always wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid, and even if I wasn’t driving it was amazing just to be there. I was more worried the night before, but I guess it was only excitement. On the plane I felt like it was natural to be there. I’m thinking to get my own license right now…

Anyway! Too many words… This is the story in pictures. Better than words… But not even close to what is “flying”.

yes, gopro. Julien probably had crazy tricks and turns in mind. I’m glad that he didn’t do any!Ciao mamma shotI like photograph where there’s a big sense of composition, order, geometry. I like it when it is very graphic and ordered. This is why I’ve always wanted to shoot houses from above. We all think that our house is special. It’s big, small, it’s “bigger than”, it’s “nicer”. It’s ours… From above they are just  boxes. Big, small, red green or blue. They are just the same.