Knowing from a young age that photography was his calling, Northern California-based photographer Brain Gaberman received his first camera (a Pentax ME Super) after his aunt tired of hearing the 17-year-old talk about taking photos – even though he’d never seriously shot anything before.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and Brian’s work speaks for itself. His ability to make skateboarding photography feel like high art, his knack for capturing people as their unguarded selves, and his incredible understanding of angle and light, has seen him travel all over the globe. Safe to say any doubts his aunt and family had that this was his destiny have been well and truly quashed.
As you can see from Brian’s work, he really feeds off the energy surrounding him when shooting. “Trying to shoot The Beastie Boys on a two-foot wide concrete island between multi-directional traffic lanes in the middle of Manhattan while they made fun of me for shooting them with an antique, large format camera (they asked me if I knew there was such thing as digital cameras). All the while people in cars were heckling us. That was also one of the best experiences. Every time I make pictures it cycles between the worst and best experience…constantly,” he says.
Check out some of Brian’s select frames below, and head here to follow him on Instagram and here for his website:
Bailey By Moon
Beastie Boys Fighting
Brandon Westgate, Alouette Lake, Canada
Colin Provost, Petaluma, CA
Dominick Walker, Seattle
Ethan Loy Boneless, Big Sur
Evan Smith Lyon, France
Evan Smith Release
Fullpipe Silhouette
Jared Mattson
Julian Davidson 360 Flip
Karsten Kleppan and Lenin, Pyramiden Svalbard
Karsten, Pyramiden Svalbard
Levi Brown, Asturias, Spain
Madars Apse Sky
Nassim Guammaz, Vancouver
Nick Garcia Hill Ride
Scorpion
Skatepark Shadow
Tony Cox, San Francisco
Ye Old Destruction BTS