Interview by Graham Tait
Photography by Matt
It looks like you started shooting film relatively early on alongside digital, was that a conscious decision or did it just happen naturally?
I think it just stems from being around a friend of mine, Carver, who worked at a local camera shop and shot tons of film and was the filmer for the local scene making full length VX videos. I always had my Canon AE-1 shooting random skate stuff here and there, nothing good, but Carver had a Hasselblad and tons of 35mm cameras. He taught me how to develop my own black and white film and how to make prints in the darkroom at his house. So meeting him was a big push for me to shoot more film and get a Hasselblad set-up myself.
So I guess you could say it just happened naturally. Eventually I started getting more into it and shooting slide film with flashes and trying to really pay attention to what I was doing. My routine would be to shoot a good digital frame, a Hasselblad frame, and then a 35mm frame, and I used to do 6x9 sometimes too. It's so dumb to have that many different formats of the same shot!
Sometimes I end up liking the square format over 3x2 or 6x9. I've had a Hasselblad fisheye shot run in Thrasher instead of a vertical digital shot just because it shows the spot better and it's a better fit for a specific format of the article. I kind of look at it like this, I just want to shoot photos on film that were as good as people before me, I just wanted to get really comfortable with shooting on film to the point where I could shoot digital or film in a scenario and get a really good photo either way. I still lean towards film though, especially in those perfect lighting or sunset situations.
Mikey Weiner
Who are some of the photographers you look up to, past and present?
The first person that comes to mind is always Brian Gaberman. I remember Ryan Lee asking me who my favourite photographer was on a Cons trip and I immediately said Brian Gaberman, his response was "yes that's most peoples answer." His long lens work is unparalleled, then you'll see a rare fisheye with lights photo, and it's way better than other photographers. I used to sit and look at the photos in his books and nerd out on every aspect, especially the black and white. I like that he does both though, he shoots just as many good colour photos as he does black and white, I think there's just more iconic black and white ones. I would look at Dave Chami's work a lot, Mike Blabac, Zander Taketomo, Burnett and French Fred. I just loved all the old film photos, it was a golden time in skateboarding and photography. These days there's a lot of dudes out there killing it and it's amazing to see the level of photography some people are on. Alex Papke and Sam Muller are probably my two favourite photographer's at the moment. Jake Darwen is always on another level with those Lumedyne flashes and I love to see when he has a new photo come out. I like anyone that has a well rounded bag, if you can shoot all types of different crazy perspectives and formats I probably love your photos. I get bored of seeing the same fisheye angles and lighting setups, I think everyone does.
Nick Kirch - Fs Crook
When did you start getting your work published?
The first photo I got published in a mag was an ad for tactics in Thrasher. It was of Austin Thongvivong doing a kickflip backtail on the green wall rail in Atlanta, it's called laser quest rail. I was beyond hyped, couldn't believe I was getting paid for a skate photo. Austin doesn't really skate too much anymore, crazy to think that was in like 2018 or 2019.
Ty Brown - Bs Noseblunt
You've jumped in on a few Tum Yeto tours, how did that happen and what are they like?
Back in 2019, my good friend from Atlanta, Shareef Grady hit me up and said he needed to shoot an ad for Pig Wheels. We had already shot some really gnarly photos that were used in Transworld sightings back when that was a thing. So Reef got me in contact with Mike Sinclair about the ad and what not and that's when the relationship with Sinclair started. We ended up getting this ad and I think I had already been going on trips with the Jevans crew in North Carolina for at least a year or so. So I had a lot of gnarly photos from these trips of all the homies.
I was submitting photos to Burnett in big batches and trying to get them an article or something, and he ended up saying we could get an online piece which gave me the fire to really see what I could do. I sent Burnett 30 or so photos one time and some of my best photos were in there. He got back to me, asking me what I was doing next weekend and that Kyle Walker was coming to town with the Vans team and if I was available to shoot. I didn't know what to say, it seemed like everything I was doing up to that moment just came to fruition and I couldn't believe it. I actually didn't get any photos from that trip published but it gave me such a big drive to just push harder and get better and try and shoot as much as possible.
I sent Sinclair a link to the photos from the Van's trip one day on a whim, I can't even remember why I did that because I didn't know him too well at the time. I think I just wanted him to know I was on a trip with pros recently and whatever. He got back to me with a super positive response and started telling me that a Tum Yeto trip was happening soon and he wanted to see if it was something I was interested in doing. He started sending me the itinerary for a 90 day trip across the U.S of everywhere they were going and I couldn't believe it. They ended up just asking me to do the East Coast portion of the trip, so I was on tour with them for 30 days the first time.
Sinclair put me in a group chat with Leo Romero and Dakota Servold right away and I was like what? This is insane! I just couldn't believe what was happening.
Alex Lobasyuk - Fs Bluntslide
The first tour with them is certainly something I'll never forget, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to go live it up with some of my favourite skateboarders for a month. I think that's any skater's dream. A big part of me doing these tours with them for so long was having my parents lake house 45 minutes outside of Charlotte, a booming city with endless spots. We all slept there and it was pretty surreal staying at my family lake house with all those dudes, it’s where I grew up! Having fires every night, fishing, going paddle boarding in the morning and drinking coffee. Those times hold a special place in my heart.
As soon as that tour ended it seemed like 3-4 months passed and Sinclair asked me to do another East Coast tour, asking if we could do the lake house again, and that one was about 45 days for me. The week before that tour started I had a 14 page article called "Real Life Sucks" in Thrasher. I knew some photos were going to get used but I had no idea that was happening. Burnett really got me on that one. So these tours were in three different places usually, Asheville, my lake house and then Dakota's parents house in Atlanta. It worked out well for me because I didn't have to really go too far. I had cousin's I could stay with in Asheville so it was just easy for me to be a part of it all because I had somewhere to stay no matter what, because these trips are gnar, a lot of times these dudes are sleeping wherever they can, on the floor, or on a couch, whatever it takes to make it happen.
Patlanta - Fs Ollie
Trips can be quite intense to shoot, you have unfamiliar spots and are battling it out with filmers for angles. How do you cope with that and how do you know what camera to use when you don't have much time?
I think it's more not being able to set-up in time because the dudes are jumping out of the van and doing their trick before anyone is even ready. So that part can be intense sometimes, but it's not always like that. Man, trying to fumble 3-4 different cameras on those trips was pretty crazy but I love the challenge of it. But yeah, trying to battle out fisheye angles with someone with the HVX and whale eye isn't too fun, because most of the time these guys are not going to do the trick again for a photo, and I don't even want to ask. You kinda just have to be on your toes at all times, ready to go with a full Hasselblad set up with some slide film on one arm, point and shoot and the other and then the digital camera. It's not bad if you just have a few minutes to get set up, but that was certainly rare during those tours. I can't tell you how many times Braden Hoban kickflipped into a big rail first try before I could get anything out. Haha!
But that's the fun of it. It's skateboarding and you can't take it too seriously, you gotta remember he's just having fun doing that, that's how good he is. So you just learn to not take it personal and just be more prepared for the next one because there's always more.
Justin Hearn - Fs Smithgrind
That's some good advice. Where are you currently living and what does a regular day look like for you?
I’ve been living in Atlanta since 2016 and my day varies from week to week since I’ve been running my own freelance photo/video business. I’ve been doing that for the past six years and I don’t really get tons of work from one particular company or anything. I might be out shooting products at some business or home, but I do events, branding photography for local businesses, portraits/headshots, cars, commercial real estate, pets, families, whatever really. I think so many photographers are scared to be labeled into a category that they don’t pursue the commercial side as much, but there’s a lot of money to be made if you put yourself out there. So if I’m not working a job or shooting skating I’ll have a pretty slow morning, hit the local skatepark around 11 or go to the city and meet up with some homies to skate. Then probably come home and kick it with my lady and make a nice dinner, maybe go ride bikes to the brewery down the road.
I try to keep it pretty low stress, I don’t want too much responsibility. But if people are in town, which happens a lot too, I’ll just drop everything and meet up. It’s nice being able to do that. I’ve always had to work really intense labor jobs or only have the weekends off my whole life, so I greatly appreciate the position I’m in and I try my hardest to keep it going. It’s not easy by any means trying to make it all work, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Patrick Lusk - Fs Feeble
How did you actually get into photography?
I always skated but never shot photos too much. When I moved here I would go to the skatepark everyday after work and ended up meeting all the local skaters and eventually started going with them to backyards ramps and go skate street in the city, but I could only skate so much and there were some good skaters around me so I started to bring my Canon AE-1 everywhere. As time went on I just shot so many backyard ramp photos and random street stuff that I got a Canon 6d, 24-70, fisheye and two speedlights. I started to shoot more because there was such a big scene here with people out filming everyday. There was another local photographer David Morico and he had photos on his website of Grant Taylor, Justin Brock, David Clark and all the homies here. That really made me see like wow, there’s a lot going on here, maybe I can try to get out there in the mix too. But before moving to Atlanta, I really loved nature photography and going on crazy long excursions to get photos. I wasn’t even interested in skate photography in the beginning, but as time went on and I continued skating all the time things just naturally went that direction.
Nick Kirch - Bluntslide
You're on the road for two weeks to shoot photos. Where are you going and who are you taking in the van?
If I could pick, it would be like a camping trip, Antihero style. I would probably try to hit some uncharted pacific northwest areas and into Canada. I feel like there is a lot of untouched potential out there and I'd make a video kinda like Antihero does, dad cam style. I wish we would have done that when me and the homies were working on Cinco, a local video that got Thrasher homie video of the year two years ago.
If I could have a dream team? Probably the Uma squad, those dudes are the raddest. Or maybe Slave. Antihero is the real dream, that's skateboarding to me. If I'm on a trip I want to experience life! I don't want to just be at the bottom of a stair set and then in a hotel room at night, shit’s boring. I've hung out with those dudes here and there and it's never a dull moment on or off the board.
Alex Hancock - Bs Heelflip
What you got going on over the summer?
That's a good question, your guess is as good as mine. Haha! I feel like if you ask me that next week my answer will change, so it's hard to say right now. This past six months or so I wasn't planning on shooting with a ton of people that I did, it just happened, a lot of people come through Atlanta. Tum Yeto came through, I went to NC to shoot with Shiloh, Georgia and Don for a little Toy Machine trip. Cons came to Atlanta on a 10 day tour and I got to shoot all of that. Antihero was here for a minute and I got to shoot a few things, I was hyped when Burnett had left. Haha!
Elijah Berle came here with his filmer Cody Green for a week recently and we've been shooting together anytime he comes here. So I just wake up and I'm like oh shit my life doesn't suck, somebody's coming to town! It can be pretty dry here as far as people skating on that level, but I've got a few longer term projects in the works right now that I’m hyped on. I'm always wanting more though.
Javon Goodman - Bs Smithgrind
Published in North 40