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This photo taught me that being around amazing people is better than anything else in the world ever. I purchased this bike with my buddy Michael O’Neal at a fancy thrift store in Southern California on a road trip from San Francisco to Malibu for Phoot Camp 2010. We noticed that the bike was actually called “The Fury” as it was sold originally from the factory. What kind of name is that for a bike from the 50′s? An amazing name. The fury. So we went halfsies on this bike on a whim, specifically with the idea of taking photos of riding it into the pool. God I love pools.
So already the bike photos were a collaboration with M’oneal. But then as we started taking photos of riding it into the pool I got pretty bored with the typical angles we came up with, and I think everyone was thinking of how we could do something more interesting. We got a ladder out, and I was talking with a fucking ridiculously cool photographer from LA, Derek Wood. He suggested we get up on a ladder and tilt people sideways or backwards into the pool. I asked if he would be up to be our first model, and he was down. This picture happened. And thanks to Daniel S Lee, you can see what the whole setup looked like as I took a similar shot in my french flag short shorts (don’t you judge me).
The photo was derek’s ideas, michael and I’s bike, my camera, Laura Brunow Miner‘s event, and everyones’ creativity and imagination. It’s a sweet example of what the scientist Stuart Kauffman, and author Steven Jonson call “the adjacent possible.”