Interview by Zach Raffin | Photograhy by JD Stroud
The Los Angeles art scene is filled with vibrant oddities.
At a recent gallery opening in West Hollywood I met a woman with dyed green hair and pink stockings who walked around the show with a baby goat in a stroller. In the corner stood people dressed as rabbits performatively drinking carrot juice.
This is all to say: shit can get weird. Thankfully JD Stroud’s newest book is devoid of both furries and domesticated farm animals.
The Topanga based surf photographer + scribe has collected his work over the last 5 years in his first ever book titled Candid Observations In Transcendentalism (Surfing). While largely centered around Los Angeles’ unique cacophony of surf-obsessed derelicts, the book features choice shots from Hawaii, Europe and the East Coast as well.
We caught up with JD on the back of his book launch party to discuss his project, graffiti and the unique surf scape that is Los Angeles. Read up below!
Congrats on the new book! In your words, tell us about this project.
Thanks! This book is really a love letter to surfing. I (like many) have been heavily inspired by images of decades past. When people come of age they tend to hold those images in their head and keep them as inspiration. I just hope this is viewed 40 years from now by people who want to see what this time was like. It’s a love letter and it’s a period piece. 2019-2024 was a wild, volatile time and hopefully this allows people to see what non-professional surfing was for these 5 years.
You’ve entrenched yourself in Malibu’s notorious, ever present surf culture. What’s your typical day like shooting First Point?
A typical day shooting First Point could be so many things. It can be completely mellow, chilling on the sand and filming your friends. On the flip side it can be a petri dish of insanity, from people getting stabbed, car accidents, yachts out the back… you never know what the hells going to happen at Malibu. It’s like you’re on a TV set, what’s the next episode? To get to document it is amazing.
It’s a place that’s been heavily documented going back to the beginning of US surf culture. How do you go about giving it a fresh take through your lens?
You go to Malibu and you’ll see tons of guys with expensive camera set ups and telephoto lenses filming the best guy out with the biggest sponsors. From first timers to pro, Malibu is a smelting pot. I’ve always just filmed my friends, the guys who surf it every swell, a lot of them riding boards they’ve made themselves. It’s really about capturing the community of people that orient themselves in and around that wave, whether it’s sleeping in the lot, partying in the lot, big or small. It’s a genuine take on Malibu and the surfers that are there.
Self publishing a book can be quite an undertaking. What would your advice be for someone looking to do the same? What have you learned from the process? (What would your advice be)
Focus on subjects that matter to you. Focus on a community that’s unique to you and tell their stories in a real way. The success will stem from your work providing insight into something previously unseen.
You’re a street writer as well and the book contains a ton of poetic prose scrawled throughout. What’s your writing philosophy?
The writing included in the book is definitely the most personal part of this project. I have a lot of shit running through my mind all the time that I don’t know how to express in conversations with people. I started writing shit on walls to get that out of my head. If one person walks by and sees something I wrote and it makes them think deeper about something then that’s all that matters to me. Everything in the book is scanned of something I either wrote in the streets or in my journals through this time period.
Your friend Bryce did the illustrations for the book. How did that collaboration come about?
That came about organically as well. I didn’t even know he drew anything, which is crazy because Bryce is one of my best friends and is featured prominently in the book. One day we were in his van and his drawings were all over the floor, and he sheepishly tried to hide them from me. When I started putting this together his scrapbook drawings fit perfectly in with the rest of the work.
LA surf culture lives in the shadow of Southern California’s greater surf industry biosphere. How do you feel about LA surf culture as a whole?
It’s incredibly unique. I’m from Orange County where people are capital S “surfers.” From age 10 you’re embedded in the “surfer” identity. LA is different because a lot of people come here for something besides surfing, but they’re also die hard surfers. You get this cornucopia surfers who are surfing all the time but are still engaged with the beating heart of the city. I’ve found it makes connecting with people more interesting.
The cover is quintessentially Los Angeles. Urban surf grunge… how’d this image come about?
This is on the 7th street bridge in downtown LA. I was with Jack in the arts district going to scout a huge wall he wanted to graffiti with a paint filled fire extinguisher. He had just picked this board up and randomly had that bag in his car. We drew the face, cut the eyeholes out and I had him run down the bridge with the board. When I was thinking about what the cover should be it felt like everything about the book was in this photo. This project started in LA and a lot of the guys in the book live in the inner city, so it worked perfectly.
Favourite photo in book?
There’s one photo from a trip to France with Jack and Spencer in St. Jean De Luz. You can’t tell from the photo but the waves were pumping. That session Spencer paddled out at big Sainte Barbe and got an insane switch barrel on a 10 foot log in the rain.
Click here to buy Candid Observations In Transcendentalism (Surfing).
