Jay Watson Photography

Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Evel Knievel served in the US army, worked at a copper mine, was a semi pro hockey player, started a successful hunting guide business, competed in ski jumping, pole vaulting, and rodeo events. For a brief period he was a profitable insurance salesman, but quit after not being promoted to Vice President after a few months with the company (which later became part of the multi billion dollar Aon Corporation). Mr. Knievel also owned a motorcycle dealership and offered $100 off to any customer who could beat him at arm wrestling.

All of these things occurred before Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel became the daredevil that we remember him for today. Say what you want about Evel, but what more could we be doing in our own lives? It is a new decade so where do you want to start?

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images. Promotion for the shark tank jump in 1976.

For more images of Evel Knievel see Life’s gallery and captions here. You can follow Life Magazine on Twitter or on Facebook.

About the Life Magazine archive:

The cataloging of the Life Magazine archives by Google is a highlight of the last decade. This is the strongest collection of editorial magazine photography from American history. So far Google has cataloged every single page of each issue from 1936-1972, and can be viewed or printed for free through (you HAVE to click this link) Google Books online here. However I question how some of Life’s photographers may have lost the rights to their work that is now available for license through the partnership of Time Inc. and Getty images. I assume this was only possible due to poor contracts initially signed by the photographers in deals that now look similar to the blues musicians who lost the rights to their songs to recording studios.

Unfortunately, many photographers have not been properly credited by Time/Life. Google only hosts the archive, so we can’t blame them. If you blog, share, or post any images from the Life archive please use good karma.  Try to at least credit the photographer who shot the images whenever possible. It is the least we can do.

Dear Juice Magazine,
I finally decided to subscribe to your mag for 3 reasons. #1) It rules, #2) I can never find it in stores, and #3) I wanted to support the mag instead of belly aching about the publishing industry. Web mags will come and go, but a good mag can be put on the shelf and viewed again later. Since so many crappy magazines have gone out of business recently, I decided to subscribe to a few that are worthy of staying around in print. Hopefully others will do the same.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the swag!

- Watson

PS. Hope your screen printer guy is doing better. Nice to see he has his priorities straight.

The hat makes me look like I am 16 but I dig it. © Jay Watson Photography.

Subscribe to your favorite mags so they can stay in business and replenish their ink-jet cartridges. God bless print. Amen.

Self portrait, Grant Brittain. “I want to be buried with my Leica.”

What do you do when you are a photographer and part owner of a magazine when today’s publishing industry is scratching it’s head on how to stay in business? Here is a pseudo answer from an interview of Grant Brittain. In 2006 The Untold True Story asked GB: “What’s the difference between shooting the Bones Brigade Chin Ramp and say, Gonz during the early nineties or Kerry Getz in this decade?

“The photos are basically the same, back then, you could shoot just about anything and it could get in the mag. Now, it’s the Trick of the Week, acceptability of the trick is a bigger factor. Stuff gets old fast. It’s a One Up contest and now a video part can pretty much out date a sequence in a mag. Timing in the mag is everything, gotta get it in the mag before it’s on video, TV or the Internet. Magazines are up against those other media sources now.” -GB

Since Grant is both a photographer and a mag publisher, naturally he catches my attention when he has anything to say about the publishing biz. With so much talk about the economy and the threat against printed media from RSS feeds, blogs, and free internet news sites, I got in touch with Grant and asked him a few more specific questions on these topics.

How is The Skateboarding Mag (Grant’s magazine) dealing with the changes in the economy and changes in the publishing industry?

“I think we are able to cope with the whole downturn in the economy a little better than the corporate magazines. We can make snap decisions and tailor the magazine to our economic needs. Corporate entities usually cut staff, we can’t do that, we already run on minimal staff and we would have to lay ourselves off, we’re the owners, so I guess we aren’t going to do that. We run everything pretty lean and smart.”

Many publishers are feeling the pressure to shift their printed media over to an online format? How are you balancing the two mediums right now?

“It’s (the internet) great for publishing and documenting news. That’s one of the reasons we decided not to run that many contests in the mag. By the time we run them in the mag, they are old news. We try to use our internet site to show events, video clips, links to our advertisers and non-advertisers, press releases and other time sensitive overflow from the magazine. There are some things that the printed mag can do and can’t do and the same with the web. Used correctly, I think that our site can only serve to enhance the printed side of the magazine…We are not a news outlet as far as the print side goes. The Skateboard Mag in printed form is more about entertainment and the lifestyle, the content we run can be looked at and enjoyed and collected for years to come.”

If magazines do evolve to a strictly online format, how do you foresee revenue to be generated? Online subscriptions? Online advertisers?

“As far as advertising and selling subscriptions to the Internet site, that’s a hard one. Selling ads on a website can be a hard sell. Some advertisers are not all that web savvy, so they don’t see the value of running an ad on a website. Web users are used to getting everything for free and are hyper web savvy, if they have to pay for the information, they’ll just move on to a free venue. If a magazine wants to try to sell extra online features, archived material, poster downloads, etc., that might be a way to bring in extra revenue. As it stands now, advertising on the site (www.theskateboardmag.com) pays for the site, otherwise it’s being subsidized by the Printed Pub. It’s all open out there and a big gamble.”

Considering the current meltdown of printed magazines and newspapers, how are you able to keep your magazine relevant in today’s market?

“We will continue to publish our magazine. Magazines are and have always been a large part of skateboarding. It’s still a big deal for skaters to have their interviews and photos in a magazine. Anyone can be on the internet, good or bad. Magazines are usually better quality than the internet and you plaster your walls with the mag photos.” (Spoken like a true photographer whose images were once plastered all over my walls.)

Grant Brittain lives in Encinitas, CA and is the chief photographer and part owner of The Skateboard Mag.  He is also an editorial legend, spanning 3 decades of skateboarding history for numerous magazines, yet his work is not tied to just the skate genre. Grant shows his work often in gallery shows, guest lectures, shoots personal work, landscapes, and is a strong portrait photographer. Thanks for the words Grant. Much appreciated friend.

Layback Air by Allen Losi, 1984. Del Mar Skate Ranch. photo by Grant Brittain

Full interview by the Untold True Story and more GB photos here. Recently another short interview of GB was posted at Skate Infusion here.

• • • • •

Gambino Custom. San Jose, CA © Jay Watson Photography

Polaroid instant film should not be impossible and it should not need to be reinvented. Sadly this is not the case. In February 2008, Polaroid announced it is discontinuing production of its instant film and will close its factories in the US, Mexico, and the Netherlands. A group of 12 men have purchased equipment from Polaroid and signed a 10 year lease of a 7,420 sq ft building in Enschede, Netherlands. Known as The Impossible Project, the group plans according to their web site, “NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimized components, produced with a streamlined modern setup.”

If it isn’t broke, then why fix it? Pro photographers have complained for decades about the unpredictability of Polaroid film, while artists and lovers of all things photographic have grown to appreciate the aesthetic  of the shorter tonal curve, soft details, and yes the unpredictability of Polaroid film. Why change a good thing?

The answer is not as simple as I thought. PDN asked the Impossible Project 8 questions about what is and isn’t possible regarding the seemingly simple task or reproducing a product that was on the shelf just one year ago.

Why isn’t it possible to manufacture the film in the same way it was produced previously?

“Every Polaroid film pack consists of about 25 components and many of these components aren’t available anymore. So what we have to do is basically find new suppliers for most of the materials. It’s not possible to produce original Polaroid film, so we are looking for a new product. The meaning of Polaroid film and the needs of the customer is completely different now than the needs of back in the day. It’s more a niche market product now and not a mass-market product.”

- Dr. Florian Kaps, Executive director of marketing and business development The Impossible Project.

See the full article here: The Crusade To Reinvent Polaroid.

Coupe de Cab at Gambino Customs, San Jose. CA © Jay Watson Photography

Hopefully whatever new products come from these efforts will not be a drastic change from their predecessors. Included above are a few favorite Polaroids from an editorial shoot. These were projects being worked on by custom car builder Alex Gambino at Gambino Customs in San Jose. The hot rod coupe is owned by Cab. Both were shot on 4X5 Polaroid Type 55 Instant film which is getting scarce these days. A full list of discontinued goodness can be found here: www.savepolaroid.com. I certainly hope these are not the last customs I have shot on Polaroid.

• • • • •

Derrick going frontside at Pacifica Skatepark. © Jay Watson Photography

One responsibility in being a photographer involves teaching other photographers. This occurs through either working with assistants, or actually working as an instructor. Like kung-fu, any photographer worth their own salt has both learned from another photographer and mentored other photographers. Since 2002 I have been an adjunct photography instructor and I have taught classes ranging from photo history, advertising photography, digital capture, and the zone system. At the end of each semester I share advice to students from a lecture titled…”Important Things To Learn That Have Nothing To Do With A Camera.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I was a guest speaker at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. A few former Brooks students have contacted me about assisting, and after speaking with Eli Davis at Career Services, I was invited to present some of my work to students and talk about my experiences in the photo industry. Not only did I speak about the photo business, but I was also able to get some information from them. Here is some of the info we talked about.

I learned (3) things from Brooks and AAU students (classes started two weeks ago)

1) Roughly 80% are on FaceBook and/or other social networking sites. No surprise there.

2) Less than 5% of them follow any blog. Many students do not know what is a blog, or assumed a blog they visited was in fact just a website. They are not reliant upon industry related blogs for news or info.

3) Less than 2% know what is a an RSS feed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wheels by Yusef Odeh Bail Bonds. “If We Can’t Bail You Out. No One Can.”

A custom bail bonds van photographed among the California desert landscape.  © Jay Watson Photography

To what extremes would you go to honor or defend your art? Sadly, some graffiti crews in LA will stop at no costs. Story here by USA Today. Since when did Picasso turn into a member of the Crips? They better watch out. Yusef is coming to get em and his wagon is tight. Read the rest of this entry »

Another anxious young photographer is up and coming.
Keep your eye out for Justin Nambiar.

Portrait of Justin Nambiar while on a shoot in Oakland, CA. © Jay Watson Photography

The identity of AYMIAH is a former student, intern, and assistant of mine named Justin Nambiar. This week marks a pivotal moment in Justin’s life. He is moving to New York to assist fashion photographers, and to start the next phase of his career. J Nam is super motivated and does not waste an opportunity (or a meal). No doubt his professionalism and dedication will take him far. When I see a kid like this go it inspires me, because everything in the photo industry is up in the air right now. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Newman on the set of the 1956 boxing film Somebody Up There Likes Me. Photo by Sanford Roth / AMPAS – © 1978 Sanford Roth

Joe Reifer just punched me in the face here! Gee thanks. I think. Was this our (all photographers) wake up call, or is it just me who feels personally challenged to be a super duper witch doctor with good photographic intentions?

Don’t bother boxing with JR when it comes to names. Dude is a file cabinet of info and has more retentive value than Wikipedia. He has more lives than Felix the Cat and is more productive than Martha Stewart on speed while listening to The Exploited. He already forced me into doing 3 searches from his post.

Since I feel completely steamrolled after reading this post, I need time to respond properly and I also need to find the right medium, forum, words, content, and imagery to do so. However, the reaction I will give first is this….. Read the rest of this entry »

I have written a virtual letter to Richard Avedon in order to get a few simple answers regarding the state of the digital world today. Maybe he has some of the answers that I am looking for, or maybe he is holding out. Everyone is welcome to respond.

Richard Avedon May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004

Dear Mr. Avedon,
I have been a fan of your work for a number of years and have been inspired with your tireless dedication to photography. In this letter I wanted to ask you a few questions. I don’t know how you are going to answer me, but I am sure the universe will provide a way.

I hear so many modern photographers complaining about the current state of affairs. Way back when you were shooting in 2004, things must have been different. I know it is not wise to compare photographers of different eras, but surely you must have been somewhat effected by the technology from 4 years ago, albeit primitive by 2008 standards. That was then, and now we have CS3, dual quad processors in our computers, a full frame sensor by Nikon, and according to the marketplace we don’t even need Polaroid anymore. Did you contribute to any online forums? I never saw your user name or Flickr avatar, but maybe you used a pseudonym. Oh you crafty Avedon, I should have known! What about blogs? Did you subscribe to any blogs and what was in your feeder? Did they have feeders back then?

I am sure you had plenty to say about the technology of your time. Who can forget all the hype regarding fax machines, the death of cassette tapes, debates over answering machine ethics, and other lost forms of communication. It sure must have been much harder to connect with people in 2004. If a client needed files delivered I bet you would think Fed Ex. How 90’s of you. Oh you funny Avedon! We use FTP and YouSendIt now!

Mr. Avedon do you think your work would still have legs today? How would you stand out from the crowd? Do you honestly think you would meet with people face to face? Seems like a good idea, but it will never catch on. How many friends would be in your network? I bet you would also cast this aside as being trite and say we should concentrate more on making images. Oh you facetious Avedon! You must have kept the crew in stitches at the studio. Like it or not, some people think every business person needs an online presence to stay valid. Mr. Avedon, what would you do? It is a simple question. Facebook or LinkedIn?

I assume you’ll have an assistant hand deliver a letter or send it by pony express. Whatever works best for you is fine with me. Looking forward to your response. Until then, maybe I’ll play you in Second Life.

Sincerely,
JW