Art Brewer SHOW
Surfer shots make waves
Renowned photographer displays collection
BY SARAH JACKSON
THE OLYMPIAN
Photographer Art Brewer doesn't consider himself an artist exactly.
But what do you call a man who has spent 35 years traveling the world capturing the art, sport and culture of surfing and other things in between? What do you call someone who jumps quite literally into the beastly man-meets-water fray – from Antartica to Australia - with a camera, maybe a dinghy and little else?
"I'm just recording a culture," Brewer said during a telephone interview from his Dana Point. Calif., studio. "It's more sharing the experience."
It's quite an experience, depicted in "Masters of Surf Photography Art Brewer" a 7-pound full-color coffee table book dedicated to the artist's work through 2001.
Strapping young men (mostly young men, anyway) -including the likes of big-wave surfer legend Laird Hamilton - ride perfect waves of unbelievable blue off Easter Island. Counter-culture surfer families kick back at Cotton's Point in California. John Kelly, a longtime surfer now in his 80s, stands on the beach as another surfer comes in on a wave in Oahu, Hawaii.
On Friday, Brewer's diverse works will grace The Mark restaurant and chi-chi cocktail lounge in downtown Olympia for Arts Walk.
Lisa Owen, owner of The Mark is thrilled to have such a nationally known artist's work on the dark-panel walls of her 4-1/2-year-old establishment. "As soon as I saw the work I had a total connection to it" said Owen who met Brewer through mutual friends in Los Angeles. "It was warm and vibrant and non-pretentious and its composition is amazing when you think about what he’s doing.”
Owen, who was once an avid skateboarder and later a frequent surfer when she lived in California and Hawaii has a deeper appreciation for Brewer's work than your average landlocked citizen. "I know what the high is. The weight of the waves is insane,” Owen said of surfing much smaller waves than those featured in Brewer's photos. "It's a really beautiful high. It just takes you away.”
Brewer, 54,grew up in the 1950s in artsy Laguna Beach Calif, where his mother often sent him to the beach instead of to the baby-sitter. In his teens, Brewer took up surfing and photography and eventually made his mark in the 1960s with shots of surfers performing death-defying stunts on otherworldly, waves, all when surf photography was a new art form.
Using a Pentax camera on land and a Nikonos on water, Brewer became a freelance photographer for Surfer Magazine and went on to serve as a staff photographer, darkroom specialist and photo editor until the late 1980s. He has since expanded his subject matter significantly, including portraits of champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong for Dasani and soccer sensation David Beckham for Pepsi. Over the years, Brewer's work has graced many galleries as well as the pages of Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and Playboy.
Owen was so impressed with Brewer's pictures, she purchased five prints for The Mark’s boardroom meeting area. Those prints as well as a dozen or so on loan from Brewer, will be displayed for Arts Walk. "It's historical surf photography," Owen said "It draws you into the experience.”
Brewer has watched many surfers go on to become world champions. His work especially that featured in the book is a tribute to them as well as the sport. "It's sort of like a tribe, a group of friends you see all the time. You travel with them, you break bread with them,” Brewer said. "You're part of a family in a sense. That's what surfing is or it used to be. It's become a bigger family now that everybody is so interested."
Brewer, who still likes to surf, said he shot half the pictures featured in "Masters of Surf Photography” from the land and half while swimming or floating on a small boat closer to the wave.
Brewer can't quite pin down the best wave he'd ever experienced as a photographer. But he does recall a particular day with celebrated surfer Darrick Doerner in the mid-1990s. He was out in a small boat with some crew and friends off Oahu’s North Shore. Waves 30 to 50 feet tall surrounded them like mountains as the sun rose and the wind blew. "It's a feeling that's there's nothing else like in the world," Brewer said. "It's magic."
They rode each giant mountain of water as they came. "It puts you in a place," Brewer said. "You might call it the most religious experience you could have. You’re out there with God.”