Jury 2010
Grant Ellis
PHOTO EDITOR, SURFER MAGAZINE (USA)
Born and raised in Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southeastern coast, Surfer Magazine Photo Editor Grant Ellis has been in the water his whole life. He has ridden swells in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. He has narrowly escaped getting battered by a rogue 15-foot wave at Dungeons near Cape Town while shooting from a Zodiac boat. Grant has followed the world's Top 44 surfers around the globe as a journalist for the Association of Surfing Professionals.
But much as he loves his home continent's world-class breaks-Jeffreys Bay is a particular favorite-it was a trip to Hawaii in 1998, to shoot portraits of the Sticky Bumps surf team, that tipped the scales from surfing as a passion to a career. "After seeing the North Shore and what was going on over there, I decided there and then this was where I wanted to be. I knew photography would help me get there, and it did."
A three-year degree in commercial photography had already provided Ellis with firm grounding in the darkroom, and after a few years of shooting surf both at home and in California, he was hired at Surfer in August 2003 to run their photo department.
Surfing has come a long way from the massive redwood boards of Duke Kahanamoku's days, and, as Ellis explains, the way the sport is being captured is in keeping with its evolution. "The newest style has been influenced by skate photography; multiple-flash setups have been done by skate shooters for a while now. Photographers that used to only capture the action are really starting to understand that they need to give the full experience of the lifestyle."
What is he looking for as a surf magazine editor? "I look for good style in the action shots. The lineups should make you want to be there, and the lifestyle images should give you a sense of what it is like to be a surfer, even if you have never been near the ocean."
What does Grant make of the massive changes in surf photography over the last decade. "New angles and new surf spots are being discovered, and in the water, photographers are pushing it harder than ever. Guys are swimming deeper and deeper into the most critical parts of the wave. They're getting behind the surfer, above the surfer, under the surfer. The images we see really give the viewer the full surfing experience."
