I recently had the opportunity to have some new BMX work published in print thanks to Jeff Zeilinski, Paul Robinson and the whole crew over at Silent Magazine. Silent is designed and printed in England and they are doing a solid job of making things happen behind the scenes as it is no easy task to run a print magazine these days nor has it ever been. I want to give a huge thank you to Jeff for reaching out with the opportunity to be features in issue IX and thank you to Justin Benthien for having me out that day on the session with a solid crew while he filmed for his Deliverables video project. He has been working non-stop on that project and so many riders have been laying down some heavy moves for his lens so keep an eye out for the official footage in the future.
The two photos of mine that were printed in this issue were both shot in Burbank, California. The top one is of Riley Abramyk doing a full-commit 360 rail hop and the one below is Zak Mealman on a super unique set-up that provided the rare opportunity for a gap-to-wall-to-stairs. Both were captured with a Fuji X100V.
The cover photo of Riley Smith you see on the left was shot by Phil Arellano who is a BMX photographer based in Long Beach who has been developing his own look and style over the years and did an amazing job at creating a super unique two-page (front and back cover) spread photo. It was all hand-painted and all in-camera with no photoshop. As someone who has been fortunate to shoot many cover projects I know first hand how stressful that scenario can be and he pulled it off super clean from concept to creation. Luckily, Jeff hopped behind the lens to capture an entire behind the scenes look at the entire process of shooting the photo that I fully recommend watching which you can see HERE.
I’ve been having my work printed since 2004 and even after two decades it still feels so unreal to read my name in the pages of a magazine no matter how big or small. I am honored to be part of the BMX community throughout the years as someone who has dedicated an insane amount of time to that world. It is amazing to see print still alive and well and people pushing the limits with the quality of work that gets released into the world when it comes to representing BMX visually. I am humbled to be included with some of the newer generation of photographers out there and some of the lifers out there chasing it.
Full list of photographers in this issue include: DAVE ROLLANS, ERIC BAHLMAN, HIKARU FUNYU, JEFF ZIELINSKI, JEREMY PAVIA, JON TINSLEY, KYLE CARLSON, MADDY MARIO, MARC RAMOS, MIKE BROWN, NAOKI GAMAN, PHILLIP ARELLANO, RAPLHY RODRIGUES, SCOTT MARCEAU, TANI KALYA JACOBS
