BRONZE ERODED BASKETBALL, 2019
Daniel Arsham’s newest “relic”, Bronze Eroded Basketball, was released last week in a limited edition of 99. Arsham is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary artists, with a cult-like following whose new work garners a buzz similar to a hot sneaker drop — and from a similar demographic. Like all of this artist’s work, this cast bronze sculpture of a regulation size basketball sold out within minutes of its release. Read More
Now on view at Gagosian in New York is the exhibition The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf, celebrating the soon-to-be published tome of the same title by Rizzoli. The legendary surf and skate dynasty that is the Fletcher family – Herbie and wife Dibi, their sons Christian and Nathan, and grandson Greyson – has been an institution in the action sport culture for decades, with an influence that extends beyond to the worlds of fashion, music, streetwear, and art.
Spanning fifty years of epic stories, photographs, personal ephemera and memorabilia, The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf is a visual memoir of this immensely colorful “first family” of surfing. Dibi narrates each chapter, accompanied by personal anecdotes about the family from notable contributors such as artist Julien Schnabel, photographer Bruce Weber, surfers Gerry Lopez and Kelly Slater, and the son of one of Vans founders, Steve Van Doren.
In addition to selected imagery featured in the book, Gagosian has installed artworks by Herbie Fletcher called Wrecktangles. These large sculptures have been made from the surfboards ridden — and broken — by the greatest contemporary surfers at the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. The board theme recurs in the Wall of Disaster series, which feature masses of skateboards mounted to the wall in anarchic accumulations. Similar to their surfboard counterparts, they form a cacophony of logos and images. Read More
Gerry Cranham: Simply The Best is currently on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London. Now in his 90th year, the work of this British sport photographer defined the genre with pictures that were both intimate and action-packed, capturing the exhilaration and humanity of his sporting subjects.
Over the course of a career which spanned half a century, the range and variety of his sport images cemented Cranham’s reputation as a tireless innovator. Though his reputation rests on his legendary sports images, he also recorded some of the 20th Century’s most dramatic historical and cultural moments, from documenting the funeral of JFK to photographing Steve McQueen at the height of his celebrity. Read More
Skier or not, the appeal of vintage ski posters goes beyond the sport to have made them valuable artworks. Originally designed as magazine advertisements to lure skiers to the resorts of the Alps and Rockies as early as the 1920’s, these stylized vignettes emote that timeless feeling of a day on the slopes. Once fledgling ski resorts such as St. Moritz and Gstaad hired some of the most influential poster artists of the 20th century, and a selection of these nostalgic gems are to be auctioned at Christie’s London as part of their Interiors Sale on January 29. These are the graphic artists and posters that gave skiing its groove… Read More
On January 25th, Sotheby’s auctioned the only privately owned collection of every Supreme skate deck ever manufactured in the sale “20 Years of Supreme.” Spanning 20 years of production, the archive included all 248 decks created by Supreme from 1998–2018, passionately collected over decades by owner Ryan Fuller. Offered as a single lot, the collection sold for $800,000, purchased by a young Chinese collector named Carson Guo.
This landmark archive interweaves streetwear, luxury, art and skate culture. Established in 1994, Supreme began as a skateboarding and fashion shop in downtown NYC that has grown into a global brand with a massive cult-like following. Supreme started producing their own skateboards in 1998 and have collaborated with the most coveted brands over the last 20 years – most famously with Louis Vuitton. The complete Louis Vuitton Boite skateboard trunk with tool kit, trucks, and wheels was also included in the lot.
Supreme is equally known for their skateboard collaborations with such prominent artists as George Condo, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, KAWS, Marilyn Minter, Nate Lowman, and Takashi Murakami, among others that are part of this collection.
CARSON GUO
Guo has not revealed too much about his plans for the collection, only to say they will go on view at a new creative shop and collaboration space he is opening in Vancouver in 2020. While this rare lot may be off the market now, many of these individual skateboard decks are also currently available at our partner site, GC/EDITIONS.
Andy Warhol to Keith Haring, Jeff Koons to Damien Hirst, George Condo to Shepard Fairey – many of the most important contemporary artists have turned the skateboard deck into their sporty canvas. The parameters of its shape create a unique frame, contained within are works of art that often reference some of these artists most important pieces.
For many of contemporary artists whose work started on the street, and who are often skateboarders themselves, it’s a way to stay connected to their roots. For the blue chip artists at the top of the contemporary art world, says collector and art advisor Glori Cohen, “the skateboard provides a unique cool factor at a low price point — and it’s a really fun way to collect art!” Many of her clients buy these skateboard decks for their children’s rooms. Created in limited editions, it’s real art their kids can relate to, that’s still collectible too.
The first ever women’s edition of the The Vans Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational debuted yesterday at the 2018 Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, CA. Hosted in partnership with the largest action sports festival in the world, 16 of the world’s best female longboarders were invited to showcase their unique style and innovation on the famed shores of Surf City, USA. Founded by one of the longboarding’s most recognized surfers, the Vans Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational is a celebration of creativity in the most traditional form of the sport.
Joel Tudor, the event’s namesake and originator, is often regarded as the style master of longboard surfing. He won the U.S. Open of Longboarding nine times, including six in a row from 1995 through 2000. Despite his success however, Tudor grew dissatisfied the “high performance” direction of the sport that emerged in the 1990s. Instead of the classic nose-riding style of the 1960s and ’70s, longboarders began trying to imitate their shortboard counterparts — blurring the distinction between the two forms of the sport.
The Vans Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational has redefined the standard of longboarding with a return to its roots, rewarding those with an affinity for the grace, style and creativity for which the sport is known. Reflecting that style and creativity is the poster and artwork for both the men’s and women’s contest created by Geoff Mcfetridge. The simplicity and innovation shown by literally using duct tape for the waves, in combination with the black cut out shapes of the surfers, embodies the essence of longboarding and highlights the originality these surfers display even on the smallest of waves.
The contest is comprised of 16 invitees competing on traditional “logs” — single fin and 9’2 length minimum. There is a no-interference rule and surfers are encouraged to ride the same wave to see what they can create together. As an added incentive, additional prize money is awarded for best shared wave. Dedicated longboarding pioneers and true style mavens such as former world champions Honolua Blomfield and Jen Smith, respected shaper Ashley Lloyd, icon Kassia Meador, local Karina Rozunko and are competing in the women’s debut of the event showing the world how the ladies get it done.
All photographs by Julien Roubinet from Ice Cream Headaches
For most who envision the life of a surfer, images of board shorts and bikinis, blue waters and sunny beaches, or Hawaii and California come to mind. Unfamiliar to many however, are the intrepid surfers who call the beaches of New York and New Jersey their home break, braving the frigid winter waters of the Atlantic in thick hooded wetsuits for a few fleeting moments inside a murky barrel. Theirs is the hardcore, diverse, and vibrant cold water surfing community that is celebrated in the newly released tome, Ice Cream Headaches.
Writer Ed Thompson and photographer Julien Roubinet met surfing at Rockaway Beach and spent four years logging more than 4,000 miles from Eastern Long Island to Cape May, NJ, interviewing and photographing the surfers, shapers, artists, and documentarians who make up the scene. From local legend and Montauk fisherman Charlie Weimar; to Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Finnegan; to professional surfers with global followings such as Quincy Davis, Mikey De Temple and Balaram Stack, the New York surf community is as rich and colorful as the metropolis at its center. Read More
Team USA’s Kikkan Randall and Jesse Diggins made history today becoming the first Americans to win a gold medal in Cross Country Skiing. Winning the Womens Team Sprint by just 0.19 seconds, their victory was too close to capture with the naked eye and was decided by a photo finish. The Men’s 15km Mass Start Biathlon was won by a similarly narrow margin in another photofinish earlier this week.
Omega is the Official Timekeeper of Olympic games, and has fulfilled that role for 27 Olympics since 1932, when the games were timed with just 30 chronograph stopwatches. Among Omega’s many contributions to sports timing since has been the development of photoelectric cells. First used in 1948 in St. Moritz, a highly reactive beam of light was emitted onto the finish line. It stopped the timer as soon as the first athlete crossed it, measuring to 1000th of a second.
This technology was integrated into a new slit technology photofinish camera that captured a sequence of events through a narrow field of vision from a single point on a vertical dimension. While a conventional photograph shows a variety of locations at a fixed moment in time, a photo finish shows a variety of times at a fixed location. The time markings along the bottom of the image show the exact crossing time of any racer, and the elevated angle highlights the position of every racer in relation to the others. What results are these beautifully abstract and elongated horizontal streaks of the athletes bodies crossing the finish line. Read More
In 1967, Andy Warhol moved to La Jolla, California to make the movie, “San Diego Surf”, his homage and twist on the classic surf films of the late 1960’s. Surfboard shaper Tim Bessell was then just a kid, living down the street.
Fast forward to the 1980’s where Bessell was invited to New York by film producer Gary Binko and by chance met Warhol at the opening of the Playboy Club. As it turned out, Warhol and Bessell had a mutual friend, another surfboard shaper named Carl Ekstrom. Famous for his asymmetrical surfboard designs, two had been used as props in the movie. Ekstrom told Bessell if he ever ran into Warhol, tell him he said hello. Little did he realize he would have the chance to do just that!
Spotting him at the opening, standing with a group of models, Bessell introduced himself on a dare. Warhol didn’t surf, but was obsessed and enamored with surf culture. Taken with Bessell and his friends, Warhol invited him to hang out at The Factory and the offices of Interview magazine.
Read More
Story and Photographs by Kelly Ryerson
I’ve known fashion photographer Kelly Ryerson since the beginning of this millennium, and first worked with her at Women’s Sports & Fitness magazine, where we journeyed on many an outdoor adventure. One of our most memorable was to photograph some bathing beauties in Goldbug Hot Springs, a hidden gem of a natural hot tub, bubbling along the banks of the Salmon River in the mountains of Idaho.
Hiking has always been a source of joy and solace for Kelly. As kid growing up in Austin, Texas, trekking through the woods and trails was simply the way to get to whatever watering hole she and her friends decided to cool off in that day. When faced recently with the emotional wallop and pain of a divorce, it was to hiking that Kelly returned, finding comfort in both its physicality and serenity.
Last March, Kelly embarked on an epic 5-day journey to Sơn Đoòng Cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Vietnam – only just recently discovered – photographing it in these majestic images shown here. This is the story of her cavernous adventure…
Read More
CLOCKWISE TOP LEFT: FLOATING SUBWAY MAP, FRANCOISE SCHEIN, 1985; CYCLING UP LAFAYETTE ST; METRONOME UNION SQUARE, KRISTIN JONES & ANDREW GINZEL, 1999; THE WALL, FORREST MYERS, 1973
While urban bike sharing programs are great for commuting and tooling around town, they are also the ideal sightseeing vehicle for both tourists and locals alike. Allowing you to go slow enough to take in the monuments, landmarks, and vistas of a city, and fast enough to cover some ground, you can get your exercise in along the way too. Plus with docking stations located all over the city, you never have to worry about locking your bike.
A few weeks ago, on a balmy summer’s eve, your STYLE of SPORT editor was invited by Rapha on a cycling art tour of Manhattan. Rapha is the posh English cycling apparel and accessory brand we happen to love and feature regularly for its blend of sophisticated style and performance. With a recently opened shop in Manhattans’s Soho called the Rapha Cycle Club, the store serves as a hub for the city’s cyclists and starting point for group road bike rides. On this evening, however, it would be an 8-mile city bike — or Citibike — ride through Soho, Chelsea, and a bit of midtown too.
RAPHA CYCLE CLUB, NYC
The Rapha Transmission Tour, as they call it, was lead by Derrick Lewis, Rapha Communications Manager for North America. Its mission was to show us New York from a new perspective. As a lifelong New Yorker myself, I always welcome this opportunity. This would be a tour of New York City public art — those architectural structures, installations, sculptures, and paintings we see everyday, perhaps never really notice, and often know nothing about.
Read More
Jeremy Koreski photographs surfing, among other outdoor sports, but he doesn’t take pictures in warm sunny locales. It’s cold, wet, and sometimes snowing where he is, but the subjects in his photographs never seem to mind. They’re too busy having fun. Bundled up and in wetsuits — with hoods, booties and gloves – they’re all smiles taking advantage of the natural playground their surroundings have to offer.
Koreski grew up in Tofino, British Columbia, a town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, about a 1½ hour ferry ride from Vancouver. There wasn’t a whole to do there other than watch TV or play outside. Koreski and his friends opted for the latter. Surrounded by water, surfing and fishing were the activities of choice. At 13 he picked up a camera and started shooting, documenting their outdoor adventures. Koreski still calls Vancouver Island home and his work showcases the lifestyle and culture of the Canadian coast and Pacific Northwest. The landscape is the star of his images, given perspective by the subjects in it.
Read More
In 1939, a 17-year old girl living in California decided to embark on a monumental bike trip across the country. The World’s Fair in New York City was her destination. That girl was award winning photojournalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin (1921-1985).
Orkin grew up in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, and at the age of 10, received her first camera, a 39¢ Univex. She began by photographing her friends and teachers at school. Obsessed with traveling after three cross country train trips with her family, she took a job as a teenager at a travel agency in 1937. When a pamphlet for American Youth Hostels arrived in the mail one day at work, offering cheap lodging and cooking facilities for travelers journeying by foot or bicycle, the call for adventure was too great to resist.
At 16, Orkin took her first Youth Hostel trip to San Francisco, and the following year somehow convinced her parents to let her bicycle across the country. Multiple newspapers carried the story of this 17-year old on a cross country tour of U.S. Youth Hostels. While she had actually hitchhiked from LA to Chicago, and then Chicago to New York – equally adventurous and kind of crazy — Orkin later wrote in her book, A Photo Journal, published in 1981, “The bicycling was done while I was sightseeing in each city: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Boston. I also biked the smaller distances between the four eastern cities and while hosteling through four New England states. All in all I biked a total of 2000 miles during those four months!”
Read More
Twin sisters, Kimberly Hise and Cristen Barker, or Kimmy and Crissy, are known on Instagram as the ChinTwins. Former fashion models, these two beauties stay lean and serene with their formidable yoga practice and have been sharing a move a day with their now over 20,000 followers since last summer.
Born and raised in Alabama, Kimmy still resides in her home state, while Crissy lives in NYC. Juxtaposed in their rural and urban settings, they have become Country Yogi City Yogi, demonstrating the identical pose on Instagram everyday. The twins show that the physical and spiritual benefits of these moves transcend their location — and their locations are everywhere and anywhere! From country roads to city streets, boat docks to roof tops, farmers markets to supermarkets, the ChinTwins are mirror images in their contrasting locales.
HAND STAND, DOWNWARD FACING DOG
STANDING HAND TO FOOT
BRIAN BIELMANN is an internationally renowned surf photographer with a body of work lauded worldwide. His passion for both surfing and photography have kept him on the forefront of the genre for over 35 years. Brian got his start after a wipeout on a reef kept him out of the water for month. It was then that he picked up a camera and realized he could make a living doing what he loved by photographing it. He describes himself as a photographer first, surfer second, and his pictures capture the lifestyle in which he has been immersed, living on the North Shore of Oahu — home of such breaks as Pipeline, Waimea and Sunset Beach. As he said at a recent TEDx Talk in Honolulu, “I love it, I live it, I photograph it.”
I had the pleasure of working with Brian 15 years ago on a shoot in Brazil for Conde Nast Sports for Women. We were there to photograph the top women bodyboarders and while waiting for waves Brian kept us all laughing and entertained. We have stayed in contact and chatted last week about his career and pictures. With all the snow sports about to take over our lives for the next two weeks as the Winter Olympics are contested, I thought it might be nice to go to the beach for a moment, especially given what an arctic winter it has been.
CL: Brian, you are considered one of the best surf photographers. What is it about your pictures that sets you apart?
BB: I want the shot that nobody is taking. The fish eye is really popular right now, but I am shooting with a longer lens which is rare. Don’t get me wrong, the fish eye is cool. It sees the inside and ceiling of the wave, but it looks the same whether it’s 3 foot or 8 foot. It doesn’t do the wave justice. With a longer lens, say in the 70-200m range, you see the thickness of the lip of the wave and the roof. It gives you a view of the whole house as opposed to just the living room. Read More
THIS YEAR Jeff Curtes, Burton Snowboards’ primary lensman, marks his 20th year as a professional snowboard photographer. He calls himself a snowboarder first, a photographer second, and his pictures give an insiders view into the life of the professional snowboarder both on and off the mountain.
Thursday November 7, 2019
Thursday October 3, 2019
Sunday September 15, 2019
Tuesday September 3, 2019
Wednesday July 31, 2019
Sunday July 21, 2019
Tuesday June 4, 2019
Monday May 13, 2019
BACK TO TOP
