“During the six months he spent on this project, Bickford was constantly pummeled by waves and sucked under them. Treading water while equipped with fins, a digital S.L.R. camera and an AquaTech waterproof housing, he looked for riders coming down breaking waves. Then he swam as close as possible. The result? “After the Storm,” a little book with fantastical photographs that make you feel as if you’re engulfed in the wild tumult of a raging ocean. In one, the silhouette of a surfer is spattered with thick spray. In another, an ominous wave arches straight up into sky. And his portraits of locals, set on beaches against a backdrop of stormy clouds, are just as dramatic.

“Mr. Bickford fell in love with the area and with surfing after moving nine years ago into a funky beach house in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. ‘I wanted people to feel what it’s like to be here,” he said. “So I think in terms of cinematography. You know, how am I going to set a mood for this, make people feel like they’re walking into a bit of imagination that’s real?’ ”

–From “Must See: Surfing with a Dark Edge”, New York Times Lens Blog, 7/20/2009

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/must-9/

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“With a respectful nod towards the masters, this project is delightfully out-of-sync with established surf photography trends, more high-art than high-action. Originally started as a documentation of his circle of friends and their penchant for chasing storm swell, Bickford’s project grew to encompass the many facets of the colorfully eclectic Outer Banks surf culture. Bickford is a commercial photographer and “After The Storm” marks his first foray into documenting surf life. He bought an underwater housing specifically for this project and learned in-water photography by trial-by-fire. After The Storm” has gained traction in the professional photography world with a nice big feature on The New York Times’ Lens, a large format photography blog and a selection of images from the project and accompanying essay over at Burn Magazine, an online photography journal curated by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey.
–Drift Magazine, Perspectives in Surfing, 7/29/09

http://driftsurfing.com/blog/?p=746

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Over the course of the next month, timed with the release of our upcoming Photo Issue, we’ll be calling out some of our favorite photographers.

We’re starting off with one of the most striking surf projects we’ve seen in a while, After the Storm, by Chris Bickford. The Outer Banks resident shot a series of stunning black and whites about the North Carolina surf scene. While the initial story was done for David Alan Harvey’s excellent photo blog Burn (now an online magazine), in the months following it has been picked up by outlets like American Journal and The New York Times.

The gallery and corresponding essay capture the gritty, take-it-as-it-comes nature of surfers living on the Outer Banks. Fickle weather and shifting breaks make finding and catching the perfect wave a crap shoot. Those that love to ride have to search out waves, and they often have to wait for storms to find bigger waves. In the end, they must be able to give up everyday life at a moment’s notice for a chance to enjoy their sport.

In undertaking this project, Bickford sacrificed much of his own precious time on a board. “You have to make a decision: surf, or take pictures. So I haven’t done much surfing since I started this project. But I don’t mind really; truth be told I’m a much better photographer than I am a surfer, and for me the magic of surfing has always been about the feeling. I get just as much satisfaction from knowing, when I swim back to shore clutching my camera and sputtering water, that I’ve captured something special, some small shred of the essence of this waterlogged life out on the edge of the ocean. Bit by bit, session by session, the picture is coming together.”

Nicely, we might add.

From “Galleries We Love” Outside Magazine Online, 9/3/09

http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2009/09/galleries-we-like-after-the-storm.html

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For people who still read, a book about the real Outer Banks.

Chris Bickford decided to document the year-round reality of Outer Banks existence in his new book “After the Storm”.

“I was already shooting lots of landscapes,“ explains the New York Times contributor of his motivation. “Then I’d be in the water, surfing, and kept having those times where it was like, ‘God, I wish I had a camera out here.’ Those sessions where it was really late in the day, with just three people out — sun’s going down, sky’s beautiful — and I wanted to do something that captured the essence of the life and feeling of waiting around for the storms to come and storms to end. So I bought a housing, and spent the year catching all those in-between moments.”

Shot totally in black-and-white in late or early hours and from an abstract perspective, Bickford’s book is a creepy series of silhouettes and ghostly figures as seen from the fringe. It’s a reminder that even when the scene goes dead, the Outer Banks are full of life.

from Surfing Magazine Online, 10/2/09

http://blogs.surfingmagazine.com/news/after-the-storm/

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He kicked around Ireland and the continent for a while, playing guitar on city streets. He moved to Australia to study Aboriginal culture and lived in Seattle during the rise of grunge music and Starbucks. Then a few years ago, well into his 30s, Chris Bickford relocated to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and picked up one of his dad’s old cameras.
“Oh yeah,” he said to himself. “This is it. This is the thing.”
A creative explorer all his life, Bickford (Col ’89) found in photography his greatest passion and a new career. It’s gotten him into publications such as National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times and American Journal Magazine. “After the Storm,” his project on Outer Banks surfing, was showcased at June’s Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville.
From the Outer Banks to New York City nightlife and the Carnival celebrations of Venice and New Orleans, Bickford’s work takes inspiration in many ways from Impressionist painters.
Bickford, 42, was the kid who was drawing all the time in classes during his childhood in Norfolk. He loved painting and considered majoring in art at U.Va. before spinning off into a postgraduate career of music and scholarship. Circling back to the visual arts, he found in photography a captivating immediacy for both the photographer and the audience.
“For a person like me,” he says, “the way to live life is just to keep exploring and keep seeing what it’s all about.”

From “Summer Like You’ve Never Seen it Before,” U.Va. magazine, 7/13/09

http://www.uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/summer_like_youve_never_seen_it_before/

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Comments from bloggers

Wow. Sometimes that’s all you can say. I am a huge fan of Chris Bickford’s photography. I have rarely seen an essay photographed with so much emotion. Wonderful work, magic.
–Stephen Alvarez, National Geographic Photographer

Chris Bickford is an artist. These images are timeless.His choice of black and white is exceptional, one of the reasons these photographs are so beautiful. Makes me want to own large versions of these photos, framed, and put them on my walls. It would give me the feeling of being at the beach all year long. Fantastic work. — cjm

North Carolina is my home state and these are some of the most compelling black and white photos I’ve seen in a while. The Outer Banks are weirdly haunting. Chris Bickford has brilliantly captured the moody, noirish, coastal atmosphere. Great work.

–Alisa Dockery

Very much in the vein of Sebastiao Salgado’s work in terms of composition, lighting and the grainy look of the images…This is some excellent photography.

—David Ripley

Brilliant use of color, light, and composition to reinforce the mood and message of each photo. These are really unique, arresting photos, and I feel like I’ve been to a museum exhibit. I’m a fan!
Kevin Kertscher

Upstairs is Chris Bickford’s work “After the Storm” a beautiful body of work on the surfing life. The sepia toned prints really have the rich look of film. Slow the pace down so you can enjoy Chris’s poetic surfing images.

Lisa Helfert, commenting on Chris’s Fotoweek DC exhibition.

you take me into the water with you..
being a beach baby myself,
I loved the journey you took me on…
playing in the water,
surf
friends
and overall
the beautiful vastness of the water,
the freedom of the waves…
great essay
feel your passion…

–Wendy from Burn

CHRIS,
you photograph like an ancient greek sculptor,
you understand geometry,
you see 3 and more dimensions..
YOU ARE AN INVENTOR..
you have your own palette…
You are a MASTER…
OF COURSE the constipated typical
B&W lovers wont get it… ( same with “color” ones )..
and that should make you happy…malaka…
again, im a beach lover myself yet never seen the beach “your” way…
YOU ARE AN INVENTOR…. what else to say ?
not only the colors but also your unique angles…
.. and btw what inventor sells immediately…
CHRIS,
SOMEDAY YOU WILL BE STUDIED AT SCHOOLS…
AND thank you for not complaining, preaching,
or trying to save the seagulls or clean up the
beach from pollution…
fresh, not deep, LIGHT, ON THE ANCIENT “SURFACE”…
OF THE TIDE you move and surf…
You are a beautiful “serpent” my friend…
Now sit back … relax and enjoy all those dissectors and coroners
drinking tea in front of their fireplace, trying hard to explain you…
I wish i was YOU today my friend… a historic day for burn indeed…
someday you will be studied at schools…
you will…
remember that…

–Panos Skoulidas

This work cries for a book! Awesome images! Best I have seen of surfing so far!

–Reimar Ott

A beautiful meditation, a visceral poem on what it means to be alone and at peace with the shadow of the swell and the sail of the sky: like a swell, my heart is breaking…spectacularly beautiful…

Bob Black