Ryan Tatar

Ryan Tatar is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer/photographer who is also the cre­ator of the pop­u­lar blog, Shakas and Sin­glefins. His beau­ti­ful, retro-style pho­tog­ra­phy has become his own unique trade­mark. We spoke with Ryan to find out more.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I felt stoke for the pure fun of it—but also some­how a strange new close­ness to the planet by har­ness­ing that nat­ural power of a wave.

What kind of equip­ment do you use when tak­ing pho­tographs?
I shot a lot of dig­i­tal images back in Cal­i­for­nia because it was con­ve­nient, easy and afford­able. After a trip to Japan in June for the Green­room Fes­ti­val, I was look­ing at all of my pho­tos and a friend’s (artist Yusuke Hanai), and I couldn’t believe the mood and soul he man­aged to cap­ture on a sin­gle roll of film in an old Canon FTb. I was imme­di­ately con­vinced that film was a bet­ter medium in the story I was try­ing to tell. I’ve man­aged to acquire a small and hum­ble col­lec­tion of great inex­pen­sive, but mechan­i­cally sound, vin­tage cam­eras and have been work­ing exclu­sively with film on these old relics. Those cam­eras, along with an old blue thrift store suit­case full of expired slide films, have been my lat­est trip.

What do you look for when shoot­ing images?
That usu­ally changes as I believe my tastes change as I am inspired by what’s around me. For the most part though, I’ve always searched for some­thing inter­est­ing with­out a lot of dis­trac­tions around the subject.

For exam­ple, some­times I see the per­fect sub­ject but it’s just not the right back­drop. Let’s say it’s a rusted out Inter­na­tional Scout with a shiny new swal­low­tail stick­ing out. If its parked in the dirt park­ing lot at San Onofre, I will feel inspired. If it’s parked next to a BMW at Ross Dress for Less in a strip mall, then the moment just doesn’t speak to me. That’s not to say there aren’t inter­est­ing things in unex­pected places—it’s just that for me the whole sit­u­a­tion should have some authen­tic­ity when you are cre­at­ing a photograph.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
I’m sure a lot of surfers would say this or that wave or cul­ture they came across upon their travels—and it’s hard to pick one place because I think they all stand out in one way or another. That being said, I thought it was pretty cool to see Tikal in Guatemala. We got there after the “park,” if you would call it that, was closed. We still man­aged to get in and had the place to our­selves. It was a mag­i­cal moment, being in an ancient, pow­er­ful and for­got­ten city with the sun falling below the canopy in a strange land with the only soul around being my lady and a guy we paid to sneak us in.

Who/what inspires you?
Vinyl records, old well-kept cam­eras, my par­ents, rootsy water­ing holes off the beaten path, divey Mex­i­can restau­rants, my girl­friend Joanie, count­less films, artists, and pho­tog­ra­phers, rusty surf rigs, the ocean, large strange for­eign cities, small Amer­i­can towns, the open road (not the inter­state), local farms, mom and pop stores and old crusty sailors.

What is cur­rently your favorite board?
I’m cur­rently lov­ing a 9’6″ Michel Junod 60s-inspired log. And I’m just get­ting used to a pretty rad board my friend Josh Hall shaped for me—a 7’11″ long fish Simmons.

What’s your favorite meal?
Cal­i­for­nia bur­ri­tos at Roberto’s or Ponce’s in San Diego or some home cooking!

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Music is a big part of my life. I find it very rel­e­vant and impor­tant as fre­quently a voice of dis­sent or just a sign of the times. Right now, I’m lis­ten­ing to the Black Keys, Radio­head, Zep­pelin, Vetiver, the Matt­son 2, Real Estate, Griz­zly Bear, the Drums, the Pho­to­graphic, the Kooks, some stuff on Ubiq­uity records, the Avett Broth­ers, Ani­mal Col­lec­tive, and the Mumlers.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
The Surfrider Foun­da­tion. Clean beaches and open access for all is such a great thing. Jim Mori­arty is doing a great job over there with his organization.

What’s next for Ryan Tatar?
I’ve got a big piece com­ing out in the cur­rent issue of Slide, and am work­ing on some sim­i­lar stuff for a few other mag­a­zines. Also, I’m doing a slideshow at the Annen­berg Cen­ter of Pho­tog­ra­phy in Los Ange­les in Feb­ru­ary. In con­cur­rence, I’m plan­ning a trip to Cal­i­for­nia to shoot some film and surf my old spots in So Cal. Until then, I’ll be surf­ing and doc­u­ment­ing an under­ground Cape Fear surf scene out in south­east­ern North Car­olina where I now call home.

Find out more about Ryan Tatar and his pho­tog­ra­phy here.