INTERVIEW WITH LAURA AUSTIN

recently I talked to Laura Austin for Golden Ride Magazine. head feet over head to the full story and travel with her photographies around the world.

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CONNY MARSHAUS AND HER FISH FAMILY

photographer and outdoor enthusiast Conny Marshaus and her drop dead gorgeous fish family striked out to the surf & skate festival in munich earlier this year. get to know how Conny put her photographs on her favourite material wood and which surface is her favourite to move along.

how's your summer so far? 

pretty awesome! at the moment I am in Thuringia in a small village called Löbi, where my family lives. so far it’s been a pretty exciting year for me with lots of traveling and work.

please tell us about your exhibition at the surf & skate festival. 

Flo, one of the founders of the surf & skate festival came across my lifestyle photos featuring some surf shots on my website and asked if I want to show my photos at the skate & surf art exhibition this year. I didn’t hesitate a second and said "yeah, for sure".

a couple of months prior the exhibition I already had the idea to print some of my favourite photos on skateboard decks. unfortunately it just stayed a rough concept without excecution because I was too busy with work.
I finally got to realize my idea at the surf & skate art exhibition, but instead of skateboard decks, I envisioned fish-like shapes, cut out of wood, that would serve as canvas for selected photos of mine. my brainchild "the fishfamily" for the exhibition was born.
every member of my fishfamily is one of a kind. each has a unique layout of photos, shapes and graphics printed on its surface. after I hung all ten members on the wall with ropes at the exhibition I noticed they look like fish cought in a fishing net.

how did you produce the fish boards? 

I found a company that was able to print photos on wood by using a printing method called UV direct printing. UV printers cure the ink with a series of ultraviolet lamps, causing the ink on the wooden surface to be dry almost immediately after the print head has passed.
they printed my layouts on a large piece of spruce wood. with the help of my amazing carpenter boyfriend Andreas Reiber I cut the printed board into ten fish-shapes.

it's not the first time that you've worked with uncommon substrates for your photography. please tell us more about your affection for putting your images on different materials.
I love it how different materials come together and how they merge. first I started with polaroid-transfers with my 320 landcamera. normally you do the transfer onto watercolor paper but it worked fairly good on forex plates as well as wooden boards. it was important for me that you can still see the wooden structure through the pictures.
at the moment I still like to work with wood, because there are so many different kinds of wood with various patterns, structure and color, that gives each photo a uniqe background.

w – wild
o – original
o - object
d – drop-dead gorgeous

on which surfaces do you personally prefer to move along?
in the summertime I love to be on a horse and in wintertime definitely in the mountains, just being around with my friends in the snow. these are my favourite moments. 

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ABOUT A GIRL – BRITTA BURGER

Britta Burger, fashion editor and edgy twist adder of cooler magazine talks about the necessity of anarchic elements in creative projects and explains why rules are more fun than no rules. after I've worked with Britta for indie and monki magazine several times and as a big cooler mag fan it was long overdue to open the question time for the london based whizz kid.

many might know you as the fashion editor of cooler mag. what do you do all day long? 

I plan the style pages for every issue of cooler, and the cover, I decide which models, photographers, writers and illustrators I should commission; what brief I should give them; which clothes I should use, everything fashion related is done in house which I think gives the mag a very strong identity. I write articles, interview people, take pictures in our new in house studio or on location, usually somewhere in London, work on the layout with our designer, do the proof reading; I normally come up with about two web stories per day, put them up on the site and on facebook, check the web stats, work with marketing and sales people on new strategies, etc etc.

when I'm not in the office I check out clothes at PR agencies, street cast, find locations, go on shoots and trips. I've started doing little video edits and fashion films too which is kind of what I have the most fun with at the moment. they're all just done on my phone, but the new iPhone is cool for stuff like that, great image quality, and it means you can be very spontaneous and film the weirdest things in the strangest locations without people even noticing.

plus I do my personal and freelance stuff, mainly photography and mainly on weekends or in the middle of the night.

how did it come that you work for cooler? do you have any boardsports background?

I saw cooler in a shop, liked it, and emailed them. my real background is in literature and languages, but I did do an MA in fashion journalism in London, initially I thought it was just for fun, but I started working as a fashion writer for newspapers and also got into styling, quite strange and I guess you could call it 'edgy' fashion stories. ridiculously edgy actually. some completely absurd stuff. I miss doing these shoots.

I grew up in the Kitzbuehel area in Austria, so I started skiing so early – before I turned three – that I can't remember not being able to ski. I tried a bit of snowboarding when it was really cool in the early 90s, but I'm a much better skier, I used to be an instructor for six seasons and did competitions as a kid. I only started surfing on cooler press trips and am a bit embarrassed that I can't skateboard.

do you think there are limits in mixing fashion and boardsports in an all girl magazine?  

there are always limits, but I push the traditional boardsports look as much as possible, I go as far as I can get away with, or a little bit further sometimes. I like playing with rules, subverting them. rules are more fun than no rules, but they are kind of just a game for me, I don't take them seriously. I think any creative project should have an element of anarchy, otherwise it's just light entertainment.

in other words. what do you think about stories showing models with skateboards used as accessories?

I wrote a whole blog about this for the volcomunity page, about how cool a skateboard makes you look, even if you're a boring high fashion brand with no street cred, and how I thought I would never use skateboards for such ulterior motives. but I realised I had a whole collection of shots of models with skateboards. and not all of them can skate. which means I'm a hypocrite. but then, a lot of them can, and the ones who don't look like they possibly could. they might not look like top athletes, but that's not what skateboarding (or surfing or snowboarding) should be about. It never used to anyway. I'd much rather shoot someone who skates for fun and is into skate art and films and is part of the culture around it, maybe a photographer or illustrator, or I don't know, some street skater who invented a trick and has really good style, than someone who has no time for all that because they have to train for the X-games all day, or someone who can do crazy tricks because they are basically gymnasts. I can go to the circus to see that. that doesn't mean I don't like crazy tricks. or the circus.

you work a lot with subcultures in your photographies. what's the exciting about it for you and where do you find those people? 

it's where street style comes from most of the time. or where it used to come from. there hasn't been that much new stuff since a large junk of the working class has been destroyed and replaced by a big underclass with very little power or influence. it's funny how a lot of stuff that came from 50s to early 80s working class subcultures is still re-used and re-packaged for a middle class customer. but it's a stupid, fake, 'subculture-light' version, without the poverty and the violence. people want to be credible but play it safe at the same time. I was casting boys for a 60s inspired football fashion advertorial a couple of years ago and found some great models, who were also probably grandsons of guys who went to watch the football in the kind of clothes we were shooting. the brand I was working with said the boys didn't look aspirational enough. just because they were chavy. I shot them anyway, for a magazine and a national newspaper. two of my favourite style stories ever.

and it's easy to find people like these boys, they're everywhere. they're very close to being the majority. people are too brainwashed or too arrogant to notice. it's easy to work with them too, you just have to talk to them and be open and not condescending, you'll probably have a good time with them.

I like that you show strong and cheeky girls.

you might be right when you say they're strong, I don't particularly like showing vulnerable women, I deliberately avoid it unless a shot is very beautiful or works really well for the story or the context, but even then I'd put it next to a shot where the model looks a bit tough. for some reason I prefer showing vulnerability in boys. it's less cliched. and a trace of it is very sexy.

do you feel limited in styling and taking pictures of girls all the time? 

yes. I love boys. for high fashion stuff I probably prefer girls, I like weird poses and girls tend to be better at them. but for portrait stuff it's definitely boys, it's easier to take pictures with more depth, maybe because boys tend to be less good at faking it.

what was the biggest challenge once you moved to london?
it's very expensive and very competitive.

which part of london would you show your guest who is into skateboarding, markets and nightlife? 

the obvious choice would be East London, there is a cool new skatepark in Victoria Park and two nice bowls in Clissold Park in Stoke Newington where you can also watch the skating action from a hill in the sun. and East London is so trendy that it's full of bars and clubs and restaurants, and there's Broadway Market and Chatsworth Road Market and then the big ones like Brick Lane or Columbia Road flower market. but it's also a bit of a cliche, and don't go there if you have a problem with hipsters. parts of South London are still marginally better, and there is a great skatepark in Brixton and a good market actually and some famous music venues, quite gentrified too though, but more chilled than East.

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EBRU YILDIZ SHOT THEM ALL

mega mail found me at the INDIE office. the brooklyn based photographer ebru yildiz created a large-sized black & white zine together with art director and designer yeliz secerli. flicking through the energetic images you quickly find out that ebru shot them all – yeah yeah yeahs, pulp, the kills, liars, girls, warpaint, tv on the radio, the horrors, sonic youth, ratat, azealia banks...

what's your favourite club in new york at the moment?
definitely bowery ballroom. it is just the perfect place to see a show, it has great sound and a good vibe.

which band that you've photographed had the highest energy level on stage?
I am always amazed with the different qualities of each band's energy on stage. I guess it kind of changes according to your interpretation of that energy. for that reason, it is incredibly difficult for me to pick just one. I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds recently for the first time, and I could not get over it for days. my mind was blown. but their energy is completely different than Iggy Pop's incredibly raw energy on stage, how he does is beyond my comprehension. and there is of course Thee Oh Sees. their live shows have some sort of madness to them that is unlike anything else I've experienced. Ty Segall's live shows are super high energy in their own way and Shilpa Ray has also different type of intensity and energy. her voice has that mesmerizing intense quality. and for sure, I can't really end this list without mentioning one of my favorite NYC bands – A Place To Bury Strangers. you literally feel their music and energy vibrate in your bones during their live shows!

what is the craziest thing that happened to you while a shoot?

just recently I was shooting this canadian band called Metz. people mosh like crazy during their live shows. I am not sure what happened exactly but I think the bass player hit himself with his bass and split open his forehead. it was unreal, I have never seen anyone bleed so profusely. his blood was gushing out all over the place. it definitely helped to make good photos, but when I got home, I realized my lens and camera had blood all over!  ah, also there is always the story of me breaking 3 front teeth and fracturing my upper jaw at a show! but let me leave it at that, cause it sounds better without the details.

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I CHANGE ZINES WITH SERGEJ VUTUC

hailing from the skateboard and punk scene sergej vutuc initiated many different art projects like running a gallery and publishing zines. "painful reminder" is his latest marvel. sergej just moved to new york where he lives concrete dreams.

I still love to swap zines for driftwood.

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MONKI MAGAZINE & MATERIAL GIRL

in the past few weeks we've scanned and projected the future to Monki's technology issue at plastic media. 

besides a shooting with bonnie strange and beautifully illustrated geometrical forms floating in vast landscapes by hvass&hannibal you might especially be into the ultimate survivor's guide photographed by berta pfirsich.

this time material girl unites two great things we should spend more time with: our grandmas and traveling. here's a little insight to "Gerti" photographed by super duper Alexandra Bondi de Antoni and Daliah Spiegel's Tel Aviv travel diary.

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SWIMMING WITH QUAALEN

not only that I love nothing more than big white tees in summer and the fact that looky looky x cleptomanicx's collection has a weird and scandinavian sounding title, it's also photographed by kate bellm. after she had photographed a super great story for INDIE magazine some time ago she has sent me her self-made zine rockers and it so rocks.

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BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY

carlos blanchard's website is an honest place to stay. before you could turn round hours has passed and you feel like on a road trip together with good friends and you wish this adventure would never end.

besides aesthetic shots of rough winter landscapes streaked with snowboarding you'll discover pictures apart from the typical snowboard circus. like the ones of conny bleicher and ana rumiha. as a follower of lipstick productions on facebook you might have seen big mama conny making biiig jumps and punching other girls in the boxing ring. find more boobiliciousness on their hot new website and enjoy the first edit of their webisode.

Lipstick´s Boobilicious #1: Hot Mess! from Lipstick Productions on Vimeo.

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DEAD SEA

in the middle you can see the result of my sunday activity. my surfboard finally got fixed and I scraped of good times past. what remains is this little heap of surf wax.

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PEOPLE ARE STRANGE

photography ana cabaleiro

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GHOSTS OF THE SEA

dion agius, pro surfer and co-founder of epokhe eyewear, runs a beautiful website. I stumbled upon it while listening to silver firs.

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CHAMBRES AVEC VUES

desillusion magazine just launched chambres avec vues. it's a simple and easy website to share your wildness and to drift away.

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THE SIREN'S SONG

shortly before I left Vienna we have finished the actual issue of material girl magazine. it became such a sweet thing. alluring with its marvellous cover taken by marie zucker it reveals dreamy editorials with dinosaurs, horses and mermaids and features – one of my personal highlights – barcelona based musician maia vidal photographed by berta pfirsich on the inside.

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ABOUT A GIRL – ALBA PARDO TATCHE

it was last year when I met Alba bustling around at the women in boardsports retreat for the first time. Alba is photographer and journalist, she has just launched her own online snowboard mag and because she is so into everything she does she even received a trophy for her efforts she is making for women in boardsports. in short, she's more than just a pretty face.

it's about a month ago you've been to the women in boardsports retreat in Saas-Fee. please make a short summary of your impressions. 

the wib conference in Saas-Fee is always a special occasion, some of the most inspirational women and the shakers and makers of the industry come to the beautiful Swiss town to share their knowledge and experiences. the conferences, the workshops and all the activities are great. however, my favorite part is all the new people I get to meet there and how some of them become great friends.
this year, one of my favorite speeches was from Ida Holmen, she’s the digital content manager at skullcandy. she brought the real feeling into the event hall, and what it is like to be working for certain brands in the industry. also, the video conference we had with Kabul’s Benafsha Tasmim, the sports and education coordinator at skateistan was really emotive and inspiring. I could go on and on, and name all the ladies that came this year, but then this interview would be infinite. so I suggest that you all visit women in board sports! what a great promo here!

you are playing an important part in wib. in which way are you exactly involved? 
well, it all began in 2009 when I randomly landed in Saas-Fee, a good friend brought me to the first wib retreat. Daniela and Carmela, the organizers, had gathered together some of the most incredible women in the industry, and being their first year organizing it they had some amazing ideas but couldn’t do it all. I had my camera with me and I began taking photos for them. that brought me to film the event and edit the videos and also take care of their website and social media. obviously, it’s not only me doing all this. we are a few girls that teamed up to help the wib founders to evolve and make this great platform even better.

you`ve already gave us an insight to your favourite speeches. what else attracted your attention?

Ida’s speech was one of my favorites, but also Anna Maria Rugarli the csr and sustainability director for vf international was super inspiring.

the great thing about wib is that not only the talks are inspiring, but also all the contributions that the attendees make, the discussions and the open mic times.

I’ve learnt about some great projects in snowboarding like Nichola’s Thost sprungbrett and swiss snowboarding girls, and also some initiatives in water sports like the butterfly effect presented by Tatiana Howard. 

besides your efforts in wib you are photographer and journalist. there must have been beautiful landscapes and interesting people your work brought you to. what do you appreciate the most about your job?
you just said it. what I really appreciate and I feel thankful for is all the wonderful places I’ve been but most importantly all the people I’ve met (and I will meet) on the way. I know it might sound stupid, but I’ve recently realized that this is what makes me happy: going out there and meeting people to make things happen. I don’t really care about the rest. 

what makes a perfect picture for you?

hey, this is a hard question. I don’t think that only one photo can be perfect, otherwise I’m screwed. no, but seriously now, for me a good picture is the one that you can hang in your room, living room or even in your toilet, and never get tired of it. so this means all sort of styles and photos can reach for the perfection, but personally, I never get tired of snowy photos with incredible riders in it, and the only thing they have in common is that none of them are mine.

reading your blog reminds me things that I sometimes forget while being stucked in the oh so busy media world. with posts like smiles make it easier or I'm not just a pretty face you are bringing things in question. is there anything you would like to ditch on this way?
I just read again those entries, and I bet you choose the angriest ones in propose, hahaha, but realizing how angry I can get sometimes it makes me smile. it is true that being a girl into a man’s world ain’t easy, specially when the first impression is always based on how big your backpack is, and many many times I’ve felt underestimated, but at the end feeling passionate about the career I’ve chosen and keep trying is what really matters, and no complaints should be allowed, as after all, we are super lucky. 

additionally to your blog you've launched your own snowboard online mag. what's the idea behind sbes mag?

I’ve always known that I love to tell stories and if they involve snowboarding and great people I love it even more. so I’ve been working as a freelancer for many years and to be honest, I always dreamt about that day that I could launch my own magazine. however, I’m super perfectionist and I didn’t want to do it just for the sake of it. but the idea came back to me last winter, when I realized that there wasn’t a single spanish snowboard magazine in the net that would offer original content and be a window to the international scene but at the same time an opportunity for the local riders and entrepreneurships to show their value. so I guess this is the main idea: offer quality snowboard related content in spanish, and create a platform where everyone can find what they need in this matter while showing off to the world that in Spain we also ride, we also have mountains and that even though we are often forgotten by brands and big event organizers, there is a big fan community, or should I say “market opportunity” so they know what I’m talking about?

if you could change anything in the snowboard industry what would it be?

I always ask this very same question the people I interview. I guess sometimes I wish that more industry people would think in the way where snowboarding brings a certain lifestyle, and not on the other direction. I think this would professionalize snowboarding (in a good way) a little more. 

pizza or burger? goat cheese pizza please!
hat or cap? hat 

halloween or christmas? can I keep the presents and
the costumes but ditch the zombies and the religion?

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