TCOLLA: NEW YORK SURF PHOTOGRAPHER

Image: tcolla

I met Long Island surfer Tommy Colla (who photographs under the name tcolla) a few years ago when he picked me up from a parking lot on Long Island so I could buy a board from him.  As we drove a few miles to the closest ATM, we chatted.  “I’m a photographer,” he told me.  As we were just a few years away from the Instagram age and, fully ensconced in the eara of iPhones and it seemed at the time that everyone was a photographer.  But Tommy, it turned out, was the real deal.  His black and white images of the New York surf scene are not just beautiful, they’re evocative and surprising. His images of winter surf capture perfectly both the beauty and brutality of the experience. It’s incredibly challenging to have a fresh eye when it comes to shooting surfing, but Colla manages to do just that.  It’s easy to see why he’s one of the most celebrated (and beloved) New York surf photographer. View more of tcolla’s work here

Image: tcolla

Image: tcolla

This entry was posted on Monday, November 25th, 2013 at 1:16 pm. It is filed under Creative Culture, Surfing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.