There's a tipping point for photographers. The realisation that some images are timeless... weeeeeelll, that's a bit verbose, it's more the moment where you realise images can have an emotional value and even monetary value past the instant they were captured. I've always bought heavily into this concept.
Shot in 1991, sure, there was a realisation at the time that the day was special, that the surf was epic. But never, ever was there an inkling that this frame would still be relevant 30 years later. In fact you could argue it has become better with age.
A huge part of my fascination with capturing moments has always been this. That moment can never happen again, that hopefully it's been recorded faithfully. More accurately, recorded as the photographer perceived the scene. In turn, archiving images has been important to me. I'm stoked I still have most of my negatives from the early '90's in fancy rice paper holders. There may be soothsayer, sensei like photogs out there that just know, know at the moment of capture they have a classic. Not this guy, I mean sure, there are times where you've put yourself in the right place for something special, and known something pretty damn cool is happening. But most of the time I have no idea what will resonate, it all gets saved.
This moment was definitely one of those ones where you knew something special is unfolding
Where I'm going with all this is, value your photos, if you're a budding surf photog, or just shoot a lot of the family on the phone. For images to become classics, you have to keep them.
A few weeks back Braedon Williams from Whanga Surf Shop reached out about this sequence of his Dad, Deano taken in 2007 [18 June 2007 at 4:04 PM....to be accurate]. Did I have it still? And could they use it in the shop ....
Couply hours shifting through 20 Terabytes of folders- easy peasy, there it is...
Deano, inshore just above the hoodies
Neither Dean or I really love that the photo is already 20 years old. BUT it's fricken pretty darn wonderful to be able to draw on a photo library spanning a long time.
And DEEEN....
Sure, you could buy a Whanga Surf Shop Hoodie, but then you have to go into the shop and see Ella, Braedon, Dean or Brooke and they'll totally stitch you up into buying a wetsuit or a new board as well. Far safer staying right here, keyboard side. Just buy one of these instead. It'll actually save you money.