It is the end of winter in The Northern Hemisphere, and while our boards are waxed and our wetsuits are hanging by the front door, we are stuck at home frantically looking at the forecast or obsessively watching Pointbreak and The Endless Summer. To bring you closer to the sea, we put together a virtual exhibition presenting to you our selection of nine surf photographers, each with their own unique style and story.

The Polaroid Land 195 camera is an incredible conversation starter. Pulling it out of the bag and extending the bellows always gets an interesting reaction. I will often have the model pull the film from the backing and the reaction is usually one of awe! The feeling of actually holding a Polaroid photograph in your hand versus looking at an image on the back of some digital screen is way more natural.

I usually use a Minolta Cle with a Voigtländer Nokton 40mm/f1.4. My favorite film to use is definitely Portra 400, the natural colors perfectly fit my style and the weather in Germany is not always the best so the 400 iso helps a lot as well.

All images are 8x10 inch direct positive tintypes in Yosemite National Park. All images are made with wet plate collodion in full accordance with the 19th-century practice, with the exception of modern black aluminum backing. The camera used was the mid-1870s American Optical Co., division of Scovill Manufacturing Company shot with Dallmeyer Triple Achromat 8in, 14in James Queen single achromat, and 21in Voigtlander Euryscope.

Having the opportunity to pay homage to the 1980’s F-15E Strike Eagle by capturing its spirit with the Canon AE-1, a camera almost as “young” as it, contrasts most capabilities a typical DLSR user has. Portra 400 gives you only 36 attempts to get it right, which is opposite to the endless chances a DSLR has to create an image.

When I was heading to North Korea I decided to pack my digital camera as well as my favorite old Pentax km with a 50mm 1.7 and 5 rolls of film. Two Kodak UltraMax 400, two Kodak Tri-x 400, and 1 Fomapan 400. I wasn’t actually sure if I would be allowed into the country with the film because there is no way for them to look at the photos! Luckily they just looked at me like I was crazy for still shooting film and mocked me for a second and that was the end of it.

This series highlights the overconsumption occurring in the world at the moment, the frightening selfish behavior and lack of unity during the Covid-19 pandemic. This series is shot on the Leica Z2x 35-70mm point and shoot with one roll of FUJIFILM Superia X-TRA 400. A point and shoot for this series allowed me to showcase my images raw and truthful. With a slight blur from motion in some shots, it allowed me to showcase the rush of the subjects and panic in this series.

The Tower Bridge amalgam is the most successful of a series of photos I have shot recently that attempt to disconcert the viewer and to question uninterrogated convictions about reality. Our old certainties are being eroded in the face of climate change, destructive populisms with associated reality-averse propaganda, and now Gaia’s revenge, Covid19.

These images were shot in the morning at my home. I used to be a model and I have never thought that taking pictures would fascinate me so much. I love underexposed photos and warm lighting because of the natural look.