2 | SURFING Magazine
04 Foreword
06 the story
16 the work
Editor in Chief travis ferrÉ Managing Editor stuart cornuelle Associate Editor Taylor Paul Photo Editor peter taras Associate Photo Editor jimmy wilson Art Director chato aganza Art Director Scott Chenoweth Online Editor jason miller
Former SURFING staff photographer Kenny Hurtado. Photo: Steve Sherman
Flashback to 2004. Kenny Hurtado is in SURFING’s war room, turning aluminum processing canisters hand over hand beneath the glow of a red-lit darkroom. Sloppy border prints of 35-mm and 120-mm film sit in fixer baths holding images from India. Proof sheets with yellow crown circled markings are labeled for printing and scattered about. Posters showing The Clash, Steve Sherman’s favorite band, hang on the walls, covered with brown gunk and chemical stains. This is where Kenny will spend the next three years working for the magazine; then, as abruptly as his surf photography career started, it will end, and no one will hear from him again. While it might not be considered cutting edge these days, Kenny was the last of the film Mohicans, so to speak. The only mainstream surf photographer I know of never to buy a digital camera. The digital transition really took place around the time of his tenure at SURFING, and maybe it spooked him. Kenny’s work came from such a truly artistic place. As digital photography took over, Kenny’s images stood out from the pack more and more — but then one day he was gone. About a year ago I noticed that Kenny had a Facebook, and I reached out in curiosity to ask what had happened. In an industry that photographers rarely leave of their own will, Kenny had just up and walked away, something only Scott Aichner and Art Brewer have really accomplished. As our dialogue progressed Kenny came to tell me what he’s been up to for the last five years. The details of his life both before and after SURFING form a fascinating story within our small world, and we pressed him to share it in his own words. He agreed. What follows is the Kenny Hurtado story, as told by Kenny, accompanied by a selection of his work from 2005-2006. Enjoy. Peter Taras Photo Editor, SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 5
6 | SURFING Magazine
inland, about 20 miles from the beach. My youth was pretty normal: suburbs, baseball, pogs, skateboarding.
At a young age, between 6 and 12, I developed serious nervous
disabilities. I thought everything and anything was going to harm me in some deathly way. It became quite a problem, actually. I couldn’t even go to camp without having some kind of nervous breakdown. I learned to cope with this by drawing. It helped take my mind off the things that were polluting my brain.
I was also fascinated with the ocean; it helped calm me down. My
mom noticed and would take me to Seal Beach and Huntington after my baseball games on the weekends. I’d enter the water and not come out until we packed up and left.
I was fascinated by the surfers in Huntington. I wanted to swim out
to where they were and watch them from the shoulder. Whenever my mom went to the grocery store I’d tag along and spend my time in the magazine aisle flipping through SURFING and Surfer, and I’d make my mom buy me a copy for helping her with the groceries. I had surfing posters on my walls way before I ever started surfing. Then Endless Summer II came out. I was 11 or 12. My dad rented it from Blockbuster and I was immediately hooked. On weekends my friends and me would get dropped off in Newport at 6 a.m. and wouldn’t get picked up until 7 or 8 at night — in the water all day, just having a blast. Once we began driving we started making weekly trips up north and down south.
About the same time, my dad gave me his old Canon AE-1 with three
lenses. I took a photo class in high school and knew it was something I’d enjoy, but I didn’t take my education very seriously. I ended up failing my Photo 1 class, the Canon was stolen out of my house, and I just forgot about photography for a few years. For my high school graduation I received $500 from my family. I took that money down to Wal Mart and bought a new Canon SLR, mostly so I could document the good days in Newport. I enrolled at OCC and took a handful of photo classes, and in my studio portrait class I met
8 | SURFING Magazine
Pat Stacy. We clicked right away. He would bring in didn’t know any of the rules or that I was even doing slides that he’d shot at Creek from the water, and I anything wrong — I just saw good light and good was immediately interested. He told me Scott Winer
surfers. I ended up getting a photo of Brian Toth
from SURFING Magazine was selling a water housing doing an air right over me. I called SURFING and told with a camera and lens, so I called the next day and Scott that I may have gotten a good shot. He invited went down to visit SURFING. I bought the housing me back, and I turned in the film and showed Flame and Scott gave me a handful of film, briefly told me
[photo editor Larry Moore]. He ended up using it in
how the rig worked, and on I went.
his Golden Flame Awards photo annual.
A few weeks later I pulled up to Salt Creek, swam
out and poached Jason Kenworthy. At the time I From there I decided to dedicate myself to becoming 10 | SURFING Magazine
a surf photographer. I was 19 or 20 and felt very photography. It was more of interest to me seeing the excited that I may have already found my path in
black and white medium-format lineups and portraits
life. Soon afterward I started interning in SURFING’s
that Sherm and D-Hump were doing over perfect,
photo department, which gave me access to all the well-lit water and land shots. photographers’ work. I quickly saw what they were
and weren’t doing.
stepped in to help out with photo editing, which gave
me the opportunity to work side by side with him. Then,
I was bored with the 600-mm land shots and
Unfortunately Flame became ill, so Sherman
fisheye water shots that were all done in the same after about nine months of interning and with a few kind of light. I became familiar with Steve Sherman’s
trips to Mexico and Hawaii under my belt, Sherm and
work, and was blown away by his approach to surf
Evan [Slater] invited me on as a staff photographer. SURFING Magazine | 11
What I enjoyed most was traveling and doing getting the call from Sherm asking me to come
stories. It wasn’t really my thing to be a workhorse, in for a meeting. I sat down with him and Evan to be up every morning at 6 a.m. shooting all the
and they broke the news that they were going to
local talent. I liked finding new ways to be creative have to let me go. They made a good decision, and capture surfing the way I wanted to see it. I was
since I was already interested in exploring other
interested in classic surf imagery: black and white, avenues of photography. I think they could see pulled back, pulled focus, grainy, Leroy Grannis,
that developing.
Ron Stoner, Steve Sherman. That’s what I aspired to at the time. I also didn’t have bills, so money Since I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do didn’t matter. All I cared about was being creative. I decided to apply to art schools in LA and San My monthly check for $500 was all I needed. I was
Francisco. A few months later I was accepted into
living rent-free at my mom’s house in Placentia,
an art program in SF. I was 24. I packed up my car
and I had an old Toyota 4-Runner that I converted
and moved straight into the heart of the city.
into a little living space. I’d stay in that for weeks at
The school I attended was heavy on critique,
a time, driving up and down the coast looking for conceptual art and the study of art history and things to photograph. But I didn’t produce much
contemporaries. Almost none of my education was
work in California, which must have been quite
about the technical or formal qualities of photog-
annoying for Sherm and Evan since that’s what raphy, which I was happy about. I wasn’t interested they were paying me to do. I just waited for trips to
in learning how to become a photographer; I was
come up; once they did, I went to work 24/7 from interested in learning what I could do with photogthe second I landed on foreign soil to the second
raphy. I spent most of my time in SF attending art
I flew out. I took it very seriously. I would have the
lectures, art openings, and hour upon hour at the
whole article pre-visualized in my head and would library reading about art and photography. I wanted usually accomplish what I set out to do. I didn’t to know everything I could; I had to because that’s give up until I felt I’d nailed it.
what the school was about. The faculty expected you to know these things.
My last year working on-staff, I felt limited with
I enrolled in all sorts of strange courses: sound
what I could do artistically in surf photography. (Now
installation, art and performance courses, digital
I look back and realize that I was wrong.) I started
video, web-based artwork. It was quite an experi-
to lose interest in it and started looking for other ence. I was broke and couldn’t really afford film, so I ways to be creative without having to shoot surfing.
spent a lot of my time trying out other ways of making
Don’t get me wrong; working for the mag was by
art. I would walk around the city and find strange
far some of the best times in my life. I enjoyed and
things to use in found object sculptures, then record
appreciated every minute of it. No doubt.
sound and incorporate it into the sculptures using
I left the mag in 2007. I remember very vividly speakers I found in trash cans around the city.
12 | SURFING Magazine
My four years’ experience in San Fran- right. We drove all the way to North Carocisco did not come easy. I didn’t realize
lina, spent a night, and didn’t click with it, so
how expensive it was going to be to live and we turned around and drove to Memphis, study there. Long story short, I was evicted
Tennessee the next day. It was so foreign
from two apartments for not making rent;
to us. It just worked. We decided to call it
the city impounded my car for having too
home for now. We found an apartment and
many unpaid parking tickets (I never saw moved in a day later. The following week the car again); I was fired from four jobs; I found a job at Whole Foods, where I still I lost over 25 pounds from not being able stock selves from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. four or to afford food; I racked up credit card debt
five nights a week so I can make rent, pay
that I had no way of paying off; I had to bills, and pay for my film costs. sell all of my camera equipment twice to
If it wasn’t for photography I’d never
make rent; I was arrested for stealing food
be doing this. Photography was 100% the
from Safeway; and eventually I had to with-
reason to up and leave California. The whole
draw from school after 3 ½ years because
idea behind this decision was to invest
I couldn’t afford tuition. I could have myself in making work, and in putting to prevented those things from happening,
use the things I studied and figured out in
but I was too far off the grid mentally to school. I definitely miss traveling the world function, I guess. Quite a change from and experiencing different cultures, but being a globetrotting surf photographer
I’m putting all that on hold for now. What
— but I don’t look at those misfortunes I’m interested in is developing my photogas being negative. They’ve given me a
raphy and seeing where it will go now that
fresh new outlook and perspectives to I’ve regained a better grasp on it. For now learn from.
I’m completely content making images and developing my own self-funded work.
These days my life couldn’t be any more
I was expecting to spend a full year in
different when I was with SURFING or a Tennessee, but six months is enough for student in SF. I was enrolled in school until
me. I’m actually making the move back to
about 10 months ago. Six months ago I
San Francisco on August 20th. That place
packed up my car and drove east on I-40 completely chewed me up and spit me with my girlfriend, with just enough money out when I first lived there, but I’m looking to make it across the country and into a
forward to giving it another shot.
cheap apartment. Without a destination in mind, we planned to settle whereever felt —Kenny Hurtado, July 2011
14 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 17
18 | SURFING Magazine
20 | SURFING Magazine
22 | SURFING Magazine
24 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 27
28 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 31
32 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 35
36 | SURFING Magazine
38 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 39
40 | SURFING Magazine
SURFING Magazine | 43
44 | SURFING Magazine