Then, in 2007, I visited my old roommates, who were in grad school in Boston, and I found an art school and took it as a sign, like, “Screw it. I’m going to move to Boston and go to photo school. And I’m going to quit my job and take on a private student loan.” And that was, obviously, everyone in my family’s worst nightmare.
So that was the transition. But once I had an opportunity to shoot, a mentor at that time told me that I was fine and that I could take a technically good photograph, but I needed to find something I really like to shoot, and then it would all come together.
Was that when motorcycles came into the picture?
Carrie and I moved to Portland, Oregon, and I just tried everything. I would set up weird portraits in my backyard and photograph appetizers for The Portland Mercury. And that was right when the economy tanked in October ’08. I applied for the graveyard shift at an American Red Cross blood testing lab, and I applied for a part-time graveyard shift loading trucks for Frito-Lay. I got both jobs and I ended up not showing up to my first day at the Red Cross for training, and I just said, “Fuck it. I’m going to go load trucks for Frito-Lay so that I can actually still shoot if the opportunity arises.” So I gave up another really promising career as a lab manager for the Red Cross so I could load trucks with crazy kids. I was a college-educated biochemist just pushing carts carrying Cheetos.
I think on New Year’s Day 2009 Carrie and I decided we were getting out of Portland. It’s frozen. We don’t really have jobs. This is awful. So we moved back to California and I just started assisting other photographers. I started riding motorcycles with the guys that I used to ride bicycles with. And I started pushing film photos instead of digital. I sold my Volkswagen so I could buy my first motorcycle and a brick of Fuji Neopan 1600. I started a Tumblr blog in the early days of Tumblr. And then, Kickstarter started and I realized I could raise $2,000 to print a book of all these photos, and that’s how I published It’s Better in the Wind. One of the art buyers at Harley-Davidson’s agency at the time bought the book, and that’s how I got my first real shoot in the motorcycle industry. I was the second shooter for their apparel catalog.
So I made the book and the short film and started working with folks like you and Iron and Resin. And I had a couple of odd photo jobs that were helping to pay the bills. And it turned into this opportunity where I couldn’t screw it up so I had to work really hard and keep trying to hustle, you know? And then it was just chipping away at this giant block and trying to make a name for myself. And I still, obviously, have to do that every fucking day.