50 photographers @ymkes50photographers - Tumblr Blog

Jim Russi

Jim Russi grew up on the beach and began surfing at the age of 6 years old. He graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography with a B.A. in Fashion & Advertising. In 1978 he moved to the north shore of Oahu after what was planned as only a week-long surf trip to the island.

Surf photography in the 70s was an up and coming field with less than a dozen photographers in the water. Jim had the good fortune of becoming close friends with a few other young talented photographers at the time, who were influential as Jim began his career, namely Aaron Chang, Jeff Hornbakerand Dan Merkel. He began photographing in the line-up beside these greats and has now been in the water photographing for 30 years.

Trent Mitchell

Trent Mitchell is an Award Winning Australian photographic artist in pursuit of uncommon and timeless pictures. Revelling in off-beat locations he creates a distinguished beauty from the seemingly mundane. Mitchell produces raw, simple, inspired and emotive work both on the land and in the sea.

Tainted with an Australian irreverence and authenticity Trent's pictures have been recognised consistently over his career and have become the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, International Photography Awards, Create Awards and Capture Magazine Awards.

John Callahan

John Seaton Callahan is originally from Hawaii, he now lives in Singapore.

He photographs with passion around the world, with a particular preference for tropical places, beautiful women, and locations with good surfing conditions. He publishes worldwide as well, and has spent a year of his life on boats in the wonderland of Indonesia, loves Maldives, South Africa, Italy, and Japan, goes to the Philippines, just went to Laos, Barbados, and Haiti. Future projects include Mozambique, Ireland, Tunisia, and everywhere in Africa.

Russel Ord

Russell Ord is an award-winning photographer, based in Margaret River (Western Australia) with his wife and three kids. We caught up with him for a quick chat about surf, life and getting really close to big waves.

Mickey Smith

Mickey Smith is a Cornish born musician/photographer/cinematographer living on the West coast of Ireland.

His early years revolved around West Cornwall's surrounding Atlantic ocean, and musicianship from a young age.

Mickey toured with various Blues bands playing circuits between Cornwall and London most weekends until he left school age 16.

Experimentation with cameras developed through a natural instinct for documenting adventures at sea by day, and music by night.

Mickey's cinematic style gradually evolved into a hard earned reputation within the international action sports industry for dramatic film and photographic work and as a specialist swimming in heavy seas.

From 2000-2010 his work focused mainly on exploring remote locations and big/heavy wave environments.

He has worked in this regard with some of the finest wave riders and oceanic adventurers in the world, and has been credited with pioneering some of Irelands now world revered wave riding locations.

Sarah Lee

From Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, I am incessantly glued to camera viewfinders, computer monitors, and goggles. Currently 20, Sarah is located in Orange County as a student at Chapman University studying film/ad. Her passion for photography, particularly uw/surf, was shaped by having spent her childhood constantly in and around the ocean, long-distance swimming and surfing. She is entranced by the ocean and water people, and hopes to continue capturing/documenting their lives and oceanic activities.

Yazzy Ouhilal

Through talent, vision, determination, passion and sheer tenacity, Yassine Ouhilal has become one of the most sought after photographers in the active lifestyle world. He specializes in pioneering and documenting new and unchartered surf destinations. For the past ten years he has photographed dozens of locations around the globe, including several in Arctic regions. Yassine's unique style superimposes unlikely scenarios with otherworldly settings. From swimming in the Arctic Ocean to capture a surfer in action with a snowcapped background to driving 4000 miles across the Sahara desert in search of unspoiled waves, he will stop at nothing to create images that set themselves apart. The reason? He loves what he does.

Thor Jonsson

Professional water-photographer, designer and Founder ofSEAR. Thor Jonsson has professionally been producing images since the year 2000.

Of Swedish parentage, Thor Jonsson was born in Paris, France, in 1976. Two years later, his family moved back to Sweden where he grew up on a farm, exposed to a life of crop raising and forestry.

Educated at the Kent Institute of Art & Design in Rochester, England, BA (Hons) Editorial & Advertising Photography.

Mike Smolowe

Mike grew up in rural Pennsylvania where he was raised on a steady diet of ice hockey, snowboarding, and Philly cheese steaks.

Photography had always been a childhood hobby, but it wasn't until Mike started surfing in high school that his future began to take shape. As his obsession with the ocean grew, so did his interest in documenting it from every angle. It didn’t take long for Mike to give up his childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian and move to California to study commercial photography at the world-renowned Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.

During his studies Mike developed a style that gained attention from his peers. His photography transcended the classic surf-photography aesthetic and brought a unique commercial feel to the edgy surf culture. While in school Mike interned with photo editor Peter Taras at Surfing Magazine and was published in an array of well known publications such as Surfer, GQ, and The LA Times, as well as selected as a finalist for both Red Bull Illume’s image Quest and The Follow the Light grant, two of the most coveted achievements in surf photography.

Kuni Takanami

Born in 1978, Kuni Takanami grew up in Tokyo, developing a passion for surfing after graduating Junior High School.

Circumstances led him on an international search for new waves, friends, landscapes and experiences. A year in Australia followed by ongoing travel resulted in Kuni picking up photography as a hobby; his skills developing as he roamed the globe, camera in hand.

Learning from mistakes made in his youth and from those new experiences and cultures he has embraced through travel, Kuni has evolved into a philosophizing and excitingly original photographer.

Juan Fernandez

Juan Fernández was born in Gijón, Asturias (Spain) in 1978. When he was fifteen he started getting interest about photography. Same year a Spanish surf magazine ran an image taken by Juan. Since that moment he has specialized in all about surf journalism and travelling. He studied photography in CEV, Madrid, and took part in seminaries with teachers like Genin Andrada and Jose Manuel Navia (National Geographic photographers), and currently he has finished a degree in journalism.

Joni Sternbach

In Montauk, at the eastern end of Long Island is a community of surfers. Their avocation takes place right on the water; they are persistent elements in a shifting scene. My approach is simple: introductions are made, and each person steps into the water and poses. The sea acts as both a backdrop and a watery stage. As the tide recedes, the rocky surface underneath is revealed, looking more like the moon than the beach. Photographing people at Ditch Plains and other locations is a natural extension of my interests, exploring another dimension of landscape and its evolving state.

Joe Curren

Joe Curren was born in Santa Barbara, California. At eighteen he began a career as a professional surfer; brought up in a family with a legendary big wave pioneer and surfboard shaper as a father and a 3x world champion as an older brother it was inevitable the sport would play a big role in his life.

For his part, Joe spent his younger years earning a reputation of his own as a world class surfer and far-flung traveler. It was these combined pursuits that spawned a pursuit of photography.

Jason Repsar

Born and raised in Liverpool, England. Jason didn't find his calling until his family moved to California and bought this unruly child a surfboard to keep him out of trouble. After diligent efforts to compete with the worlds finest surfers and a brief stint in LA county jail Jason found the back door route to traveling and surfing by placing himself behind the lens of a camera.

Jair Bortoleto

Being born in a metallurgic polar region, Jair had his first contact with the sea when he was a 5 year-old boy, crying out therefore because he did not like the feel of sand on his feet. When he was 7 he went down to the waves with a styrofoam board, of those normally bought in a supermarket. He finally got his first waves at 10 years old on a vacation to Espirito Santo state, with his family, and at 18 he went to Peru, on his first 'surf trip'.

One of his first memories was when he was just an 8 year-old boy dreamer, of his father laughing when he heard that his son wanted to go to Hawaii. He was 20 when he first set foot on the Hawaiian Islands, where he was able to take some good pictures. When he turned 21 he bought a better camera, investing his life in one of his bigger dreams: to be an artist.

At 22, during a season of work in Boston, he came in contact with some artists and listened to jazz for the first time, which soon became a passion.

Jack English

He's weird, he's wild, he's loved, and he's hated, but mostly, he's just misunderstood. No matter what you think of him, he's an amazing photographer and always brings out the best in the world's best surfers. Here's his work, here's his passion. Look now, because the next thing you know he'll be shooting photos of Marilyn Mansons bare ass at a concert sometime soon--lucky for fans of surf photography, he's still with us, for now.

Freddy Cerdeira

A new angle, a unique image. This is the mission for photographer/surfer Freddy Cerdeira when his equipment is in his hands and he's ready to get into the water.

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50 photographers