Top photo - Rider: Jon Kooley
The road to professional snowboard photographer is a long one. In fact, many would argue the road itself no longer exists, with the influx of digital cameras inevitably bringing an even larger influx of new "photographers" to the scene and subsequently flooding the market with average quality but extremely cheap images for magazines and brands to choose from. It's next to impossible for established shooters to make a living strictly off of shooting snowboarding, never mind an up-and-coming shooter trying to figure out the industry, the business and the social-hierarchy that can unfortunetly define who makes it and who doesn't.
But none of that seems to scare Ralph Damman. Not one bit. Growing up in Collingwood Ontario, where he still spends the first half of his winters before heading out west to his adoptive home of Whistler for the spring and summer, Ralph has nothing but smiles on his face as he looks to an uncertain future. Uncertain in the sense that no one can predict where the media landscape is headed but at the same time no doubt filled with endless possibilities and the excitement that comes along with that. And that seems to be the main theme that comes through when talking to Ralph, excitement at the possibilities the future holds. He doesn't seem to be kidding himself into thinking just being into something automatically grants you a free pass, rather he acknowledges the fact that has a ton of hard work in front of him, something that does not seem to bother him one bit.
And his work speaks for itself. Creative compositions and a knack for lighting combine to produce some refreshingly great photos and I look forward to seeing Ralph's work progress as he becomes deeper and deeper ingrained in the snowboard scene.
You can see more of Ralph's work on his freshly relaunched website at ralphdamman.com and get to know the man a bit better in the interview below .. plus a few of my favorite shots of Ralph's!!
Self-portrait
33MAG: How long have you been shooting photographs?
Ralph: I remember carrying around this little blue Fischer Price camera when I was like 5 years old. It had two eyeholes, pretty sweet. But I didn't really get into it until I was like 16. I started off shooting by skating around with my friends at home in Collingwood (Ontario), trying to make the shittiest spots work.
At what point did you decide to "take it to the next level" and make a proper go at the shred photog thing?
I don't think I ever really decided to change anything- I just kept shooting, met people and it just went from there. I was mostly shooting skateboarding for the first two years, and then just happened to become really tight with homies that boarded a lot ( LOST BOYS )… it kind of went from there.
I did end up taking time off university to shoot full time. Trying to make shooting work with going to school full time just didn't work and the frat dudes with their longboards weren't really my scene either. I'm still finishing school part-time though.
Alex Beebe
Do you see yourself making a full-time living shooting snowboarding stills or is this part of a multi-prong plan?
I've actually been talking and thinking about this a lot lately… I for sure want to keep shooting boardin' as much as possible but I'm also planning on getting more into documentary and portraiture type stuff. I'd love to shoot year round, whether it's boarding or even fashion stuff. I wouldn't mind working as an apprentice under a photographer I look up to- most likely outside of snowboarding.
With so many new photographers coming onto the scene every week and subsequently so much crap work out there, your images are refreshingly ... well ... good. What would you attribute that to?
Thanks man. Lots of trial and error, lots of reading about light setups, keep changing stuff until you're stoked and don't settle for less. Anyone can take a good photo I think… just put in the time and passion and pretty much anyone can figure it out from there.
""Stay hungry, stay foolish"-Steve Jobs" - Ralph Damman, that's legit right?
Kyle Doyle
What has been the biggest surprise you've learned about shooting shred stills?
It's cold, frostbite sucks, the snowboard "world" is tiny, there's lots of false promises, things usually don't work out the way they're planned, and it's a whole lot of fun traveling around with friends all winter. Don't get your hopes up too high for anything and keep shooting a lot, keep having fun and you'll be fine. Good times for sure.
Gimme a good story from this past year!
Hmmm… there's lots of good ones. Some I probably shouldn't write on here though.
We did a Stepchild trip for about a month (myself, Layne Treeter, Rob Lemay, Al Stathis, Timmy Ronan and Tyler Ashbee) and we pretty much got asked if we were in a band every day cause we looked like greasy dudes and rolled around in a tour van, I guess? It was pretty funny, so we just started rolling with it, telling chicks we were in a Bluegrass band and performed at stripclubs. Pretty much everyone fell for it.
Oh yeah, the story of my van is pretty funny (and sad) ,too. I bought this sweet VW van and was super stoked on it for the 3 months that I had it- until one day I was driving down the busiest highway in Canada with Tyler (Ashbee) and the thing lit on fire about 5 minutes from Tyler's house. 3 fire trucks and 3 tow trucks later I am now van-less.
You can see more of Ralph's work on his freshly relaunched website at ralphdamman.com
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