Art Brewer

Art Brewer is a Cal­i­for­nia surf pho­tog­ra­pher who is con­sid­ered the best in the indus­try. His color infused images and unique com­po­si­tions have cre­ated surfing’s most mem­o­rable images. Art was kind enough to spend some time to speak with us.

Tell us about grow­ing up in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia.
I grew up in Laguna Beach. I was lucky enough to be born and raised there. When I was old enough to no longer need a babysit­ter, my par­ents would drop me off at the beach and basi­cally the life­guards became the babysit­ters. I would learn about surf­ing and swim­ming and fish­ing. Where else could you do all of that? I spent most of my time at Dana Point, Doheny and San Onofre learn­ing to surf.

The ocean has taught me a lot from being so close to the peo­ple who lived there—from the artists to the fish­er­men. It was like an edu­ca­tion through osmo­sis in a sense; it just kind of seeps into you. I think the ocean… it tends to keep you out of trou­ble. And it was always there to con­stantly entertain.

Describe your first surf­board.
My first board was an 8’6” Hobie, clear with a one inch balsa stringer and basi­cally a stan­dard board – a lit­tle hippy in the back. It was just a super clean board. I talked my dad into buy­ing it for me when I was work­ing for him. It was a $106 in 1963.

How would you describe the feel­ing you felt when you first stood up on a board?
It was such an incred­i­ble sen­sa­tion. Just the whole move­ment in the water — rid­ing a wave. It just puts you in a place that just takes you away from every­thing. Your prob­lems go away. It’s exhil­a­rat­ing. Even today, I can go out and body­surf or on an air mat­tress and I still get that same feel­ing. Of course, surf­ing is a lit­tle dif­fer­ent because you are up above the water as it increases your perspective.

Would you like to talk more about surf­ing or pho­tog­ra­phy?
Well they kind of go hand-in-hand. I love surf­ing as much as I love pho­tog­ra­phy. They’re two things in my life that every­thing revolves around.

What do you look for in a good pho­to­graph?
Some­thing that will really stand the test of time. You can get away with so much with video because it’s mov­ing. With video, you tend to miss all the lit­tle flaws and mis­takes. In a still pho­to­graph, the image has to be con­cise and per­fect because it’s frozen in time. Every­thing is there for you to look at and pick apart.

When you look through your lens what do you look for first?
Gen­er­ally for focus! (Laughs) Of course, you can shoot things out of focus for effect, but if things aren’t sharp, espe­cially in action, you can’t see what you are shoot­ing. If you are not in focus, some­thing gets lost in the expe­ri­ence. You always want to get some detail to make it as real as pos­si­ble to the per­son look­ing at it.

Who/what inspires you?
Light and motion. Peo­ple. The friends you have and make as you grow up.

There are cer­tain peo­ple, I really admire … their style. It trans­fers over into the way they live. They surf a cer­tain way and it’s trans­lated into the way they live and how they cre­ate on a daily basis. John Kelly, an artist and one of the orig­i­nal big wave surfers, was amazing—his love for the water and his ded­i­ca­tion to it. And then there is Lopez. Gerry is another guy that has that same type of energy that trans­lates from the water to land.

As far as pho­tog­ra­phy, there are a lot of dif­fer­ent influ­ences. I was for­tu­nate enough to take a work­shop and to be an assis­tant to Ansel Adams back in 1973. I was famil­iar with Adams and Weston, but he intro­duced us to Wynn Bul­lock, Judy Dater, Jack Wellpot, Jerry Eulls­man, Miner White … that whole other group of peo­ple. I was seeded with that tra­di­tional clas­sic type of pho­tog­ra­phy that those peo­ple were pro­duc­ing. I am also inspired by peo­ple like Terry Richard­son, Albert Wat­son, Richard Ave­don, and Irv­ing Penn.

Tell us more.
Surf­ing pho­tog­ra­phy is one thing and tra­di­tional pho­tog­ra­phy is another. But it’s really some­thing when you are able to blend both of them together. It comes out just a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent, a bit more inspirational.

Today, pho­tog­ra­phy has become quite homog­e­nized. It’s become a lot of pretty pic­tures or eye candy. I always had this phi­los­o­phy that I never wanted to end up being the guy that shoots the postcards.

What are you most proud of?
My daugh­ter. She teaches art and pho­tog­ra­phy at San Clemente High School. It’s neat to see her do this. She doesn’t fol­low my foot­steps at all. She cuts her own trail. It was some­thing I never saw coming.

What’s the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Try­ing to be as real as pos­si­ble, to try to stay cen­tered and some­what hum­ble about what­ever you do. It just makes it eas­ier to fall into place and flow with people.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Being on a boat and being out on the water. Doesn’t really mat­ter where. Also trav­el­ing and see­ing new things.

Of all the places you’ve trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
All of them. (Laughs) I would love to go back to explore India because I just had a slight taste of it. And there is some­thing about the peo­ple and cul­ture there, just the col­ors and the light.

And I keep get­ting drawn back to Indone­sia sim­ply because of the con­sis­tency of the waves and that I am always find­ing some­thing new when I go there. I can always go to the Mentawai Islands and go north from there, and we always end up find­ing some­thing. You just lose the crowds and you find these lit­tle mysto spots that are tucked away.

Who are your favorite surfers you like to go on shoots with?
I recently had a trip with Her­bie Fletcher, who is an old and dear friend. We were down there with his son Nathan, Matt Arch­bold, Bruce Irons, Danny Fuller, John John Flo­rence, and it was a plea­sure. It was like fam­ily and was really spe­cial. We went down there and had a great trip.

What are you grate­ful for?
To have been able to expe­ri­ence what I’ve expe­ri­enced in my life, and the period of time I’ve grown up in and got­ten old in. I don’t know what the future brings, but I do know that it won’t be the way that we’ve had it. It was less pop­u­lated, less crowded and less laws. It was just a bit more wild. You just can’t replace that.

What’s your favorite meal?
Prob­a­bly chile rel­leno with a Dos Equis or it would be Poki. I’m a fish per­son in reality.

What kinds of music are lis­ten­ing to these days?
Lately, for some rea­son, I had some ska on. I’m sort of a mixed bag; I like all sorts of music, from jazz to rock to clas­si­cal. Seems like a lot of music today is like candy. They’re not really say­ing any­thing and it’s just a beat.

What’s next for Art Brewer?
The imme­di­ate future is going to New Zealand for a cou­ple of weeks with the fam­ily – my wife and daugh­ter. I’m tak­ing my dive mask, wet­suit, and fins to hope­fully pick a few abalone. And I am tak­ing my air mat­tress with me and, if noth­ing else, ride a few point breaks.

Find out more about Art Brewer and his pho­tog­ra­phy here.