Tony Hawk, April 2007
I posted a ‘Throwback Thursday” image of Amare Stoudemire on my social media sites last week. It seemed to be received well, so I thought I would do it again. As I was deciding on who to showcase this week I came across my images of Tony Hawk and thought he would be cool to feature. But as I was deciding on which image to post, I realized I had never had a chance to show any of the 6×7 or 4×5 film scans I had shot of him. I had only ever shown one diptych taken digitally. So here’s a quick little gallery of some of the images I shot – both film and digital.
I hate to admit this, but I rarely if ever bring a film camera on set these days. Back then I was still making my transition to digital so for this assignment I shot with the following: Canon digital – Mamiya RZ Pro II – Type 55 and Fuji chrome 4×5 large format film. I miss those days…
Tony was a cool guy to shoot and I have to admit I was a little ‘star struck’ when I shook his hand. Which is crazy since I never feel that way around celebrities/athletes as I’m shooting them. As a child, I was into skating and freestyle bike riding so that must have somehow stuck with me…who knows.
I’ll never forget this part… Before I could be approved for the assignment, his publicist needed to see some of my work. Thankfully, I had just photographed a few other celebrities and athletes so I was approved but I’ll never forget my first call with her. She said that her favorite images of him were the ones that Annie Leibovitz took for his ‘Got Milk‘ campaign. So, you know…no pressure. Oh man…I was stressed after that call. But I’m happy to say that she dug the images once she saw them.
We shot this at his offices somewhere outside of San Diego. During one of our set changes, he started staking on the ramp – in his full suit – and he was rockin’ it. I’m not going to lie, both my assistant and I paused for a moment to take it in.
these are incredible shots! i am glad you showcased them again!!!