Brian Ulrich and Todd Hido getting rad!
Last Tuesday at Aperture I saw a great lecture by the talented Todd Hido. As he talked about the long hours he spends driving around looking for his next subject and finding influence in the work of Robert Adams I realized that we share a very similar vision and approach to working. It really was an inspiration. Much of what Todd said will soon become career canon for me, but one thing he mentioned really piqued my interest. His early years were spent in Ohio on a BMX bike.
This got me thinking about another photographer I know who rode BMX back in the day, Brian Ulrich. I started to wonder if there was a correlation here. Maybe the future stars of MoMA can be found getting agro on the dirt tracks and in the parking lots of America. Perhaps photography grad schools should cut the curriculum and just show this to incoming students:
Hmmm...
If you are a modern photographer genius who spent their youth doing tail whips, table tops and endos, let me know and please send me a photo. I think I can get a grant for this.
Labels: Brian Ulrich, Lecture, Random, Todd Hido
20 Comments:
Hey, I used to bmx and downhill mountain bike!
Not only did I ride bmx as a kid, I rode my bike to the office today and got a flat (stranded?). D'oh.
I need photos!
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Damn... Outted!
I think the real controversy is the dyed black hair and skinny puppy t-shirt.
-Stoked
I still ride! :-D
im a photographer and still the occasional bmxer.
I'm not sure about a deep seated bmx to artist trend, but it certainly exists in many non-traditional sports. Surfing and skating for sure.
I skateboarded as a kid and was heavily influenced by the magazines and the pros. I spent too many hours last month revisiting the likes of Mark Gonzales, Natas, Jason Lee, Rodney Mullen, and of course Spike Jonze.
When these guy's skate it is an outward expression of their art and most of them are professional artists now. My skating was never so good but the constant search for skate spots easily transitioned into search for subject matter.
Here's the gonz skating some performance art in Germany: http://www.youngbabyrecords.com/
I think the correlation is born from the realization that you can make something beautiful while having fun and sometimes entertaining.
Here's a shot from the local 101 mile mountain bike race. http://jpk.infiniteregress.org/wp/?p=33
there is a difference between BMX and BMX. huh? yes. There were the racers and the riders. I was a racer and amassed more of those trophies with the golden plastic figurine than is necessary for any human being. Some taller than me at the time. We actually had to disassemble one once to get it in our '82 Celica.
that is me pictured left... my father and brother to the right...
I feel bad that my bro got stuck with the sweatpants and motorcycle helmet, while I was sponsored out head to toe and looking rad.
http://aaronhobson.com/bmx.php
Oh man where to start. First off I was in Rad. They filmed it in Calgary Alberta and needed about 1000 extras on tap. Not hard to find kids in that day and age willing to do it. I was a facelees kid in the back of a scene somewhere I hope.
My first published photo was in a BMX mag called "Freestylin". in the late 80's - the one with RL Osborn in dreads and the paisley background. Oddly RL's dad and sister Windy were main photographers for that magazine (and owners) and I wanted to badly do all the stunts and take the same kind of photos. Windy even dated the guy who did the majority of stunts for that Rad movie, Eddie Fiola. It was and always wil be a tight group. Yesterday's and today's BMX and Skate scene is rife with art talent and it's a hotbed for fresh design.
Fast forward 25 years and I don't ride much anymore but I take a lot of pictures. I have some BMX shots in the arsenal but they aren't on my site:
http://www.jasonhollister.com
Now here is me in 1986:
http://www.jasonhollister.com/images/mullet.jpg
"Now here is me in 1986:
http://www.jasonhollister.com/images/mullet.jpg"
forget the mullet. dig the pink bike and yellow shirt clash!
Oh yes, and let's not forget the most famous ex BMX-er, Spike Jonze.
http://nymag.com/nymetro/movies/features/1267/index1.html
me and one of my best friends, we are both photographers, and we both rode bmx growing up. his photos are at jleav.net.
i have photos, i'll dish them up. i'll ask him too.
BMX sort of led me to photography in a way. here is a link to a photo from back in 2000 in akron ohio:
http://www.billydelfs.com/bmx.jpg
thanks for the post!
"Perhaps photography grad schools should cut the curriculum and just show this to incoming students..."
This is semi-related, I think the New Yorker ran a story at some point about the change in the lives of writers. Fiction writers used to have fascinating back stories, but that has become more of a rarity and now they all have MFA in place of real life experience.
I think a similar thing probably applies to photography. No disrespect to grad students (which I hope to eventually be) but maybe thrashing around for a few years justs gives you a more interesting perspective than the ivory tower does.
hey one of my lectures at the university of brighton use to ride bmx his name is fergus heron you could try and ask if he has any images, just dont tell him i told you :) Harry
Here's my entry for Bunny Hops To F-Stops.
"I'm not sure about a deep seated bmx to artist trend, but it certainly exists in many non-traditional sports. Surfing and skating for sure."
that's a little misguided dont you think? i mean your saying bmxers are stupid and cannot operate a camera?
a well known bmxer and photographer who works for digbmx.com ricky adam you might want to look into... www.rickyadamphoto.com
that may change your mind..
I have been talking about this with friends of mine for a while. Riding bmx, searching for spots around a city, is a direct influence on how I make images. It helped me see the streets with a critical eye, not for what's there but what could be there. I've been collecting all my old photos from my bmx days the past few years but haven't scanned much in yet. I have one of myself here, with a broken hand and smashed face from eating shit at a skatepark, http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2079/2481331716_200d4d8b3b_o.jpg
mark your calendars!
BMX makes it's debut in the Olympics next week on NBC!
whoohoo!
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