Sport Illustrated: 1954-?

 

 

Back in 2013, for another blog called SPORTOLOGY, I did a story on the SI VAULT, a treasure trove of Sport Illustrated covers. As a creative director for sports and fitness publications, I found it an incredible library and resource for inspirational sports imagery.

Sports Illustrated covers celebrated the joy of sport. They captured the greatest athletes of all time with such an intimate point of view, they felt like a son or daughter’s framed picture on the mantlepiece. They invited the reader in to find out more. Even the most intimidating of competitors let down their guard. Read More

 

Mode Et Sport

 

 
In anticipation of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs presents Mode et Sport: From one Podium to Another, now on view through April 7, 2024. The exhibition explores and showcases the history of fashion and sport from the Ancient World to the present day.
 


 

The 450 items on view include clothing, accessories, photographs, sketches, magazines, posters, paintings, sculptures, and videos that illustrate the evolution of sportswear and its influence on contemporary fashions. Sports featured include football, golf, tennis, cycling, ski, swimwear, and more. Read More

 

Shaping Surf History

 

 

 

FROM TOP: TOM CURREN, 1981; AL MERRICK AND STUDENTS, 1980; AL MERRICK WITH ONE OF HIS INNOVATIVE TWIN FIN SHAPES

 
Shaping Surf History: Tom Curren and Al Merrick, California 1980-1983, a new surf book from Rizzoli, documents a brief but influential period in surf history in Santa Barbara, California. It was an era that saw an extraordinary mix of innovation, individuals, and epic surf conditions on the back of a record-breaking El Nino — beautifully captured by author and photographer, Jimmy Metyko, in a visual encapsulation of one of the most fertile periods in the sport.

With dramatic action shots and personal vignettes, Metyko follows the rise of young legend-to-be and future three-time world champion Tom Curren, whose preternatural wave-riding abilities would help establish California at the forefront of contemporary surfing. He puts us on the waves with a remarkable view and insider’s perspective of the sport’s evolution embodied by this young surfer, whose singular style was enhanced by revolutionary board shaper Al Merrick of Channel Island Surfboards.

We recently chatted with Metyko about this era in surf history, his own evolution from surfer to photographer, and the compilation of work in his first book… Read More

 

Basquiat x Warhol. Painting Four Hands

 

MICHAEL HALSBAND, ANDY WARHOL AND JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT #143 NEW YORK CITY, JULY 10, 1985. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST © MICHAEL HALSBAND

 

On view from April 5th to August 28th at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is Basquiat x Warhol. Painting Four Hands, a retrospective of the collaborative works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Considered the most important exhibition ever dedicated to this extraordinary collection, Basquiat x Warhol. Painting Four Hands brings together over 300 works and documents, including 80 canvases signed jointly by the two artists.

Between 1984 and 1985, Basquiat and Warhol created about 160 paintings together (hence the four hands reference), including some of the largest works produced during their respective careers. Artist Keith Haring called their collaboration a “conversation occurring through painting, instead of words… two minds merging to create a third distinctive and unique mind.” Read More

 

Joni Sternbach: Surfland

 

 

 

FIRST SURFER TINTYPE, LONE SURFER, 8×10, MONTAUK, NEW YORK 2015; BIDART GROUP, 8×10, BIDART, FRANCE; THE FUTURE, 11×14, 2015 SANTA BARBARA, CA.

 

At The Art Show last month at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC, the work of Joni Sternbach was on view at the Von Lintel Gallery booth. A write up of the show in The New York Times featured a triptych her tintype photographs titled The Women and The Waves. As a fan of surf photography, I hustled over to see the work, and to my delight Sternbach was there as well.

Surfland is an on-going series of tintype portraits of surfers that represent a unique blending of subject matter and photographic technique. Working with a large-format camera, Sternbach has been photographing surfers around the world since 2006 using this antiquated process. Ironically, Sternbach had no intention of photographing surfers – nor does she surf – until they paddled into her frame one day. The project began as an ocean series. Waving them off, she never expected they would become the subject.

Popular in the mid-late 1800’s, a tintype is actually an underexposed negative created on a chemically coated, blackened metal plate in what is called the wet-plate collodion process. When the plate is exposed to light through the camera, an image develops with transparent areas appearing black because of the background. The overall darkness of the image gives the aura of a vintage photograph. Read More

 

Gallery Hopping: The Art of Sport

 

 

There are currently four must-see sport themed installations and exhibitions on view sure to pique anyone’s interest, sports fan or not. From basketball in Marseille, to football (soccer) in London, to baseball and Title IX in the USA, these shows take an inside look at the most popular sports through a unique set of lenses: design, photography, architecture, and history. Should you be traveling abroad or staying closer to home this summer, be sure to catch these shows before they close!
 
FOOTBALL: DESIGNING THE BEAUTIFUL GAME (above)
The Design Museum
Kensington, London
April 8 – August 29, 2022 (closing soon)

With 2022 marking 150 years of The Football Association in the UK, Football: Designing the Beautiful Game showcases how design has pushed the world’s most popular sport to new limits. Produced in partnership with the National Football Museum in Manchester, the show features over 500 historical objects, films, and interviews with club legacies and such legends as Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé), Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona, and more.

Visitors can look forward to immersive stadium reconstructions and tours of some of the world’s most important football venues which explore how football helped shape communities. This includes destinations such as Wembley, Stamford Bridge and San Siro, alongside future-facing projects from leading industry figures like Herzog & de Meuron, Populous and Zaha Hadid Architects. From design enthusiasts to football fans, the show caters to all. Read More

 

Title IX: Activism On and Off the Field

 

 

The 1982 Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball team, winner of the inaugural NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament

 
On view May 13 to September 4 at the New-York Historical Society is Title IX: Activism On and Off the Field, a new exhibition that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Title IX. This groundbreaking legislation that reshaped womens’ sports in America was an addition to the Education Amendments Act of 1972 that prohibited discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal assistance.

Title IX is Best known for its twin flashpoints of sports and sexual harassment. The exhibition traces its evolution through the work of those whose personal and professional experiences with sex discrimination in education and federal government agencies made them advocates for Title IX. There are personal items, photographs, and a re-creation of a campus kiosk advertising Take Back the Night demonstrations over the last 30 years, which in the 70’s became the first worldwide movement to combat sexual violence.
Read More

 

Mountain Lines

 

SOHEI NISHINO | MOUNTAIN LINE, MOUNT FUJI, 2022

Now on view at Michael Hoppen Gallery is the newest mountainscape by Sohei Nishino, Mountain Line, Mount Fuji, 2022. It is a follow up his 2019 work to Mountain Lines, Everest, created with his signature technique. Nishino combines photography, collage, and psychogeography to create large scale experiential prints of urban and natural landscapes, constructed with thousands of images.

Drawing inspiration from 18th century Japanese mapmaking, Nishino uses photographs as geographical representation, but with a subjective point of view. From a distance, his maps are almost abstract. Each work is pieced together with images of both people and places, and it is not until we examine closer that the full experience unfolds. (Details below) Read More

 

Need for Speed

 


 

For decades, the Bonneville Salt Flats has welcomed various extraordinary automobile events, among which is the World of Speed. Every year in September, amateur and professional racing teams settle on the salt for a week to pursue their speed record dreams. In LANDSPEED 2, photographer Julien Roubinet explores this iconic gathering and otherworldly destination, embedded in the American car and DIY culture.

About 12 miles long and 5 miles wide, the Bonneville Salt Flats are a 30,000 acre expanse of hard, white salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt Lake basin in Utah. The seemingly endless expanse creates a surreal environment, the perfect surface and location to reach speeds nearing 500mph. Read More

 

Surf Creatures

 

 

French illustrator Jean Jullien has teamed up with Fernand Surfboards to create a series of four hand-painted sea animal boards ready to catch some waves. An orange fish, white seal, blue whale, and grey fish… each of these playful boards bears a unique design, rendered in Jullien’s childlike yet sophisticated style.

As much artwork as surfboard, these whimsical sea creatures are guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face, be they surfers or not. Read More

 

Liquid Horizon

 

 

Born and raised in Kauai, surfer and photographer Daniel Fuller has spent his life in, on, and surrounded by water. He is regarded as one of surfing’s preeminent big wave riders. Fuller has become a lauded photographer as well. It is no surprise his images focus on the ocean, captured in an ethereal and mystical way. His intimate connection with the aquatic world brings a unique perspective to his photography, now published for the first time in Liquid Horizon: Meditations of the Surf and Sea. This retrospective showcases an opulent collection of abstract seascapes created from 2007-2020.

Fuller’s nocturnal images of waves and water are photographed evocatively by moonlight with slow exposures. While soulful, they exhibit a creative discipline, repeating and evolving a single idea over time. As art writer and gallerist Adam Lindemann describes in the preface, “The ocean and the shore are abstracted beyond recognition, to the point that what we see is just color; the composition is a transition from one to the other — dry land merges into the water and the image becomes a part of the liquid experience.”

Whether on a surfboard or with a camera, there are both similarities and differences in how Fuller captures a wave. We spoke to him about his process and vision, and the expression of his experience with the ocean into his art… Read More

 

The Art of Sport

 

 

ABOVE, CLOCKWISE TOP LEFT: MR. BRAINWASH, MUHAMMAD ALI

“LEGEND” (LIFE IS WONDERFUL); A. BORGHERESI, MONACO GRAND PRIX; KATHERINE BERNHARDT, NIKE PANTHER; CLAUDE GARACHE, ROLAND GARROS 1990

 

Surf, skate, soccer, tennis and more… bring your favorite sports home this summer with these limited edition prints, art objects, and vintage posters that represent them all. With many sporting events still on hold, you can view them on your wall 24/7 with this curated collection from GC/EDITIONS. For more information, click images.

 

 

ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION ARTIST SERIES SURFBOARDS

Created by surfer shaper Tim Bessell in conjunction with the Andy Warhol Foundation, these Andy Warhol Foundation Artist Series surfboards were produced in a limited and numbered edition of 10 or 12. Read more HERERead More

 

Fire and Iceland

 

Skogafoss Waterfall

 
When it came time for busy actress Alysia Reiner — star of such hit shows as Orange Is the New Black, Better Things, and The Deuce — to plan a family vacation last December, it was not one that included much rest. While many people choose a warm beach or tropical climate over the holidays, Alysia and her husband, fellow actor David Alan Basche, along with 11-year old daughter Livia, packed up for frigid but beautiful Iceland — in fact, it was her daughter’s idea!

Livia has always loved volcanoes. “Since she was tiny, she was slightly obsessed”, Alysia told Style of Sport. I suggested Costa Rica, but she came up with Iceland”. Perhaps volcanoes are not what first come to mind when you think of Iceland — it’s more glaciers and the famous Blue Lagoon — but actually Iceland has some the most geothermal activity in the world. There are approximately 130 volcanoes, both active and inactive. Many of them are underneath the surface of the earth and underwater, which is how those incredible hot springs were formed.
 

Skaftafell 5 hour Glacier Hike with Iceland Rovers Tour Company

 
Known as the “Land of Ice and Fire”, Iceland is a natural wonderland where the freezing forces of arctic weather are in constant battle with the explosive heat of the earth. The result is a dramatic landscape of stark contrasts — fields of moss-coated lava, plains of black sand, explosive geysers, mountainous glaciers, and of course, those blue thermal hot springs. All of which make for a very adventurous vacation. Read More

 

Daniel Arsham: Sport Relics

 

BRONZE ERODED BASKETBALL, 2019

Daniel Arsham’s newest “relic”, Bronze Eroded Basketball, was released last week in a limited edition of 99. Arsham is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary artists, with a cult-like following whose new work garners a buzz similar to a hot sneaker drop — and from a similar demographic. Like all of this artist’s work, this cast bronze sculpture of a regulation size basketball sold out within minutes of its release. Read More

 

Gerry Cranham: Simply The Best

 

TEA WITH MUHAMMAD ALI, 1965

 

WATER JUMP, SANDOWN PARK, ESHER, c.1970s

 

GOALKEEPER JOHN HOLLOWBREAD, WHITE HART LANE, LONDON, 1964

 

Gerry Cranham: Simply The Best is currently on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London. Now in his 90th year, the work of this British sport photographer defined the genre with pictures that were both intimate and action-packed, capturing the exhilaration and humanity of his sporting subjects.

Over the course of a career which spanned half a century, the range and variety of his sport images cemented Cranham’s reputation as a tireless innovator. Though his reputation rests on his legendary sports images, he also recorded some of the 20th Century’s most dramatic historical and cultural moments, from documenting the funeral of JFK to photographing Steve McQueen at the height of his celebrity. Read More

 

Supreme x Sotheby’s

 

 

 
On January 25th, Sotheby’s auctioned the only privately owned collection of every Supreme skate deck ever manufactured in the sale “20 Years of Supreme.” Spanning 20 years of production, the archive included all 248 decks created by Supreme from 1998–2018, passionately collected over decades by owner Ryan Fuller. Offered as a single lot, the collection sold for $800,000, purchased by a young Chinese collector named Carson Guo.

This landmark archive interweaves streetwear, luxury, art and skate culture. Established in 1994, Supreme began as a skateboarding and fashion shop in downtown NYC that has grown into a global brand with a massive cult-like following. Supreme started producing their own skateboards in 1998 and have collaborated with the most coveted brands over the last 20 years – most famously with Louis Vuitton. The complete Louis Vuitton Boite skateboard trunk with tool kit, trucks, and wheels was also included in the lot.

Supreme is equally known for their skateboard collaborations with such prominent artists as George Condo, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, KAWS, Marilyn Minter, Nate Lowman, and Takashi Murakami, among others that are part of this collection.
 

CARSON GUO

Guo has not revealed too much about his plans for the collection, only to say they will go on view at a new creative shop and collaboration space he is opening in Vancouver in 2020. While this rare lot may be off the market now, many of these individual skateboard decks are also currently available at our partner site, GC/EDITIONS.

 

Decks of Art

 
 
ROW 1: GEORGE CONDO, SHEPARD FAIREY, KEHINDE WILEY, KAWS X KROOKED, KEITH HARING, ANDY WARHOL; ROW 2: MARILYN MINTER, ANDY WARHOL, KENNY SCHARF, DAMIEN HIRST, DAMIEN HIRST, JEFF KOONS; ROW 3: NATE LOWMAN, ANDY WARHOL, KEITH HARING, JULES DE BALINCOURT, JOSE PARLA, GEORGE CONDO

 
Andy Warhol to Keith Haring, Jeff Koons to Damien Hirst, George Condo to Shepard Fairey – many of the most important contemporary artists have turned the skateboard deck into their sporty canvas. The parameters of its shape create a unique frame, contained within are works of art that often reference some of these artists most important pieces.

For many of contemporary artists whose work started on the street, and who are often skateboarders themselves, it’s a way to stay connected to their roots. For the blue chip artists at the top of the contemporary art world, says collector and art advisor Glori Cohen, “the skateboard provides a unique cool factor at a low price point — and it’s a really fun way to collect art!” Many of her clients buy these skateboard decks for their children’s rooms. Created in limited editions, it’s real art their kids can relate to, that’s still collectible too.Check out a few of our favorites below:
Read More

 

A Photo Finish

 

TEAM USA’s JESSICA DIGGINS AND KIKKAN RANDALL CELEBRATE AFTER WINNING GOLD IN THE WOMENS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM SPRINT AT THE PYEONGCHANG 2018 WINTER OLYMPICS. (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)

 

Team USA’s Kikkan Randall and Jesse Diggins made history today becoming the first Americans to win a gold medal in Cross Country Skiing. Winning the Womens Team Sprint by just 0.19 seconds, their victory was too close to capture with the naked eye and was decided by a photo finish. The Men’s 15km Mass Start Biathlon was won by a similarly narrow margin in another photofinish earlier this week.  

Omega is the Official Timekeeper of Olympic games, and has fulfilled that role for 27 Olympics since 1932, when the games were timed with just 30 chronograph stopwatches. Among Omega’s many contributions to sports timing since has been the development of photoelectric cells. First used in 1948 in St. Moritz, a highly reactive beam of light was emitted onto the finish line. It stopped the timer as soon as the first athlete crossed it, measuring to 1000th of a second.
 

TOP: PYEONGCHANG 2018, WOMENS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM SPRINT, TEAM USA’S JESSICA DIGGINS CROSSING THE FINISH LINE JUST AHEAD OF SWEDEN’S STINA NILSSON; RIO 2016, WOMENS 400M FINAL, BAHAMAS’ SHAUNAE MILLER FALLS ACROSS FINISH LINE AHEAD OF USA’S ALLYSON FELIX

 
This technology was integrated into a new slit technology photofinish camera that captured a sequence of events through a narrow field of vision from a single point on a vertical dimension. While a conventional photograph shows a variety of locations at a fixed moment in time, a photo finish shows a variety of times at a fixed location. The time markings along the bottom of the image show the exact crossing time of any racer, and the elevated angle highlights the position of every racer in relation to the others. What results are these beautifully abstract and elongated horizontal streaks of the athletes bodies crossing the finish line. Read More

 

Day to Night

 

TOP: PALIO DI SIENA, ITALY, 2016; AMERICA’S CUP, SAN FRANCISCO, 2013
 
 

Now on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery is “Day to Night”, the second exhibition of works on this theme by photographer Stephen Wilkes. The images represent a visual exploration of an iconic location, photographed from daybreak to nightfall, often capturing an historical event from start to finish: Easter Mass at the Vatican in 2016; the Inauguration of President Obama at the U.S. Capital in 2013; and on our Style of Sport beat, the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris in 2016.

At first glance, what is most obvious in these photographs is the light changing as time progresses from day into night. On closer inspection however, which is mandatory, what you see is everything that happened during that time span, seamlessly compressed – literally — into one image. Taken from a single fixed position, Wilkes selects from hundreds of moments captured, putting together all these slivers of time and what occurred within them, into a single image. For his sport photographs, our point of entry, like the Tour de France mentioned, the famous Palio horse race in Siena, or the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay – we see the start, middle, and finish of the race all in one view.
Read More

 

Surfing Andy Warhol

 
ART ADVISOR GLORI COHEN WITH 5 OF THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION SERIES SURFBOARDS, PHOTOGRAPHED IN HER ART FILLED NEW JERSEY HOME

 
In 1967, Andy Warhol moved to La Jolla, California to make the movie, “San Diego Surf”, his homage and twist on the classic surf films of the late 1960’s. Surfboard shaper Tim Bessell was then just a kid, living down the street.

Fast forward to the 1980’s where Bessell was invited to New York by film producer Gary Binko and by chance met Warhol at the opening of the Playboy Club. As it turned out, Warhol and Bessell had a mutual friend, another surfboard shaper named Carl Ekstrom. Famous for his asymmetrical surfboard designs, two had been used as props in the movie. Ekstrom told Bessell if he ever ran into Warhol, tell him he said hello. Little did he realize he would have the chance to do just that!
 
WARHOL -SURF-1

ELVIS, MARILYN & MICK

 
Spotting him at the opening, standing with a group of models, Bessell introduced himself on a dare. Warhol didn’t surf, but was obsessed and enamored with surf culture. Taken with Bessell and his friends, Warhol invited him to hang out at The Factory and the offices of Interview magazine.
Read More

 

A Cavernous Journey

 

THE GATE OF SON DOONG CAVE

Story and Photographs by Kelly Ryerson

I’ve known fashion photographer Kelly Ryerson since the beginning of this millennium, and first worked with her at Women’s Sports & Fitness magazine, where we journeyed on many an outdoor adventure. One of our most memorable was to photograph some bathing beauties in Goldbug Hot Springs, a hidden gem of a natural hot tub, bubbling along the banks of the Salmon River in the mountains of Idaho.

Hiking has always been a source of joy and solace for Kelly. As kid growing up in Austin, Texas, trekking through the woods and trails was simply the way to get to whatever watering hole she and her friends decided to cool off in that day. When faced recently with the emotional wallop and pain of a divorce, it was to hiking that Kelly returned, finding comfort in both its physicality and serenity.

Last March, Kelly embarked on an epic 5-day journey to Sơn Đoòng Cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Vietnam – only just recently discovered – photographing it in these majestic images shown here. This is the story of her cavernous adventure…
Read More

 

SOS Portfolio: Jeremy Koreski

 

 
koreski-14
 
koreski-16
 
Jeremy Koreski photographs surfing, among other outdoor sports, but he doesn’t take pictures in warm sunny locales. It’s cold, wet, and sometimes snowing where he is, but the subjects in his photographs never seem to mind. They’re too busy having fun. Bundled up and in wetsuits — with hoods, booties and gloves – they’re all smiles taking advantage of the natural playground their surroundings have to offer.

Koreski grew up in Tofino, British Columbia, a town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, about a 1½ hour ferry ride from Vancouver. There wasn’t a whole to do there other than watch TV or play outside. Koreski and his friends opted for the latter. Surrounded by water, surfing and fishing were the activities of choice. At 13 he picked up a camera and started shooting, documenting their outdoor adventures. Koreski still calls Vancouver Island home and his work showcases the lifestyle and culture of the Canadian coast and Pacific Northwest. The landscape is the star of his images, given perspective by the subjects in it.
Read More

 

Girl, 17, Cycles Across U.S. in 3 Weeks

 
RUTH ORKIN IN 1947; THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT PHOTOGRAPHED BY ORKIN IN 1939

 

In 1939, a 17-year old girl living in California decided to embark on a monumental bike trip across the country. The World’s Fair in New York City was her destination. That girl was award winning photojournalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin (1921-1985).

Orkin grew up in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, and at the age of 10, received her first camera, a 39¢ Univex. She began by photographing her friends and teachers at school. Obsessed with traveling after three cross country train trips with her family, she took a job as a teenager at a travel agency in 1937. When a pamphlet for American Youth Hostels arrived in the mail one day at work, offering cheap lodging and cooking facilities for travelers journeying by foot or bicycle, the call for adventure was too great to resist.
 

BikeTrip10

BikeTrip4Orkinscrapbook

BikeTrip6.Manhattan

PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY ORKIN AND PAGE FROM THE SCRAPBOOK SHE MADE DOCUMENTING THE 1939 BIKE TRIP. ALL CAPTIONS HANDWRITTEN BY ORKIN

 
At 16, Orkin took her first Youth Hostel trip to San Francisco, and the following year somehow convinced her parents to let her bicycle across the country. Multiple newspapers carried the story of this 17-year old on a cross country tour of U.S. Youth Hostels. While she had actually hitchhiked from LA to Chicago, and then Chicago to New York – equally adventurous and kind of crazy — Orkin later wrote in her book, A Photo Journal, published in 1981, “The bicycling was done while I was sightseeing in each city: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Boston. I also biked the smaller distances between the four eastern cities and while hosteling through four New England states. All in all I biked a total of 2000 miles during those four months!”
Read More

 

Twin Poses

 
THE CHINTWINS IN DANCER POSE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL BARKER

 

Twin sisters, Kimberly Hise and Cristen Barker, or Kimmy and Crissy, are known on Instagram as the ChinTwins. Former fashion models, these two beauties stay lean and serene with their formidable yoga practice and have been sharing a move a day with their now over 20,000 followers since last summer.

Born and raised in Alabama, Kimmy still resides in her home state, while Crissy lives in NYC. Juxtaposed in their rural and urban settings, they have become Country Yogi City Yogi, demonstrating the identical pose on Instagram everyday. The twins show that the physical and spiritual benefits of these moves transcend their location — and their locations are everywhere and anywhere! From country roads to city streets, boat docks to roof tops, farmers markets to supermarkets, the ChinTwins are mirror images in their contrasting locales.
 

Hand stand downward dogHAND STAND, DOWNWARD FACING DOG

 

PadangusthasanaSTANDING HAND TO FOOT

 
Read More

 

Portfolio: Brian Bielmann

 

SHOOTING DOWN TO KE-IKI BEACH FROM PIPELINE, WHERE THE WAVES HIT THE ROCKS AND EXPLODE

 
2.Love went Mad

“THE WALL” AT PIPELINE: SAYS BIELMANN, “THIS ANGLE SHOWS HOW BIG AND SCARY IT REALLY IS. WATCH TOO MANY SETS AND YOU TALK YOURSELF OUT OF GOING OUT.”

 
underwater

HAVING PENETRATED THE WAVE, BIELMANN MADE EYE CONTACT WITH THIS SURFER RIGHT BEFORE HE GOT SUCKED BACK OVER THE FALLS.

 

BRIAN BIELMANN is an internationally renowned surf photographer with a body of work lauded worldwide. His passion for both surfing and photography have kept him on the forefront of the genre for over 35 years. Brian got his start after a wipeout on a reef kept him out of the water for month. It was then that he picked up a camera and realized he could make a living doing what he loved by photographing it. He describes himself as a photographer first, surfer second, and his pictures capture the lifestyle in which he has been immersed, living on the North Shore of Oahu — home of such breaks as Pipeline, Waimea and Sunset Beach. As he said at a recent TEDx Talk in Honolulu, “I love it, I live it, I photograph it.”

I had the pleasure of working with Brian 15 years ago on a shoot in Brazil for Conde Nast Sports for Women. We were there to photograph the top women bodyboarders and while waiting for waves Brian kept us all laughing and entertained. We have stayed in contact and chatted last week about his career and pictures. With all the snow sports about to take over our lives for the next two weeks as the Winter Olympics are contested, I thought it might be nice to go to the beach for a moment, especially given what an arctic winter it has been.

CL: Brian, you are considered one of the best surf photographers. What is it about your pictures that sets you apart?

BB: I want the shot that nobody is taking. The fish eye is really popular right now, but I am shooting with a longer lens which is rare. Don’t get me wrong, the fish eye is cool. It sees the inside and ceiling of the wave, but it looks the same whether it’s 3 foot or 8 foot. It doesn’t do the wave justice. With a longer lens, say in the 70-200m range, you see the thickness of the lip of the wave and the roof. It gives you a view of the whole house as opposed to just the living room. Read More

 

Jeff Curtes: 20 Years Of Snowboard Photography

 

 
Nau Fall/Winter 2012

26_StyleofSport_Curtes

rsz_h650_19_187.1

THIS YEAR Jeff Curtes, Burton Snowboards’ primary lensman, marks his 20th year as a professional snowboard photographer. He calls himself a snowboarder first, a photographer second, and his pictures give an insiders view into the life of the professional snowboarder both on and off the mountain.

Read More

 
 

BACK TO TOP