"I just wanted to make something for the BMX community" - Edwin De La Rosa and "4130"
Edwin's BMX book gold
Interview and photos by Rob Dolecki | For more info @blankmagbooks_nyc
Everyone already knows New York City’s own Edwin De La Rosa is hands-down one of the most legendary and influential dudes to ever touch a bike. Beyond his visionary style and progression, he's also transferred some of that energy from behind the handlebars to behind the viewfinder of point-and-shoot 35mm cameras and has become recognized as an uber-talented documentary street-style photographer. Being around fellow pro riders for over a decade, and causally capturing daily random moments for 25 years, has resulted in quite the archive of 35mm negatives. He has a new book being released soon that is over 150 pages deep, spanning the last two decades, and aptly titled "4130." Ed was kind enough to answer a few questions and also reminisce about six of his favorite photos in the book.
How did the book come about?
I met June at Blank Mag and we start talking to him over dinner and asked me about doing a book, and I said, "Sure." I had a lot of photos from the BMX days, so it was just a good way to put it out.
You obviously shoot subject matter all across the spectrum; BMX is not the primary one. Why do a BMX-themed book?
I've looked at the photos for so long and I showed them to my friends after I got them developed from like 2000 to 2025. I still go riding with Joey (Piazza) and his crew. The bulk of it is early 2000s to 2011.
That was when you were full-on in the pro BMX realm. What started the collection?
That Miami trip at the end of 2000 with Vic (Ayala), Ralph (Sinisi), Jeff Z., and you (Rob) was a pivotal one for me. I had been on some short trips to Jersey, Philly, and then that trip came up.
You were 15 years old.
That was my first real trip. It was perfect. I remember being really excited about it. And then the day before I left on the trip, my mom gave me two disposable cameras. I came back, got the film developed, and I remember just being like, "Wow." So for years I would just buy disposable cameras before I went on a trip, or just have them. I used them until I met a dude and he's like, "Yo, get these cameras." He told me to get a T4, or a Contax T2. And back then, like 2009, they were super cheap. I bought my first Contax. I started using those cameras, and that's why my pictures changed, because they look way better, like with Carl Zeiss lenses.
So what percentage of the photos you think are shot with disposable cameras?
Maybe thirty percent.
Who helped make it come together?
My homie Adross is the one that laid it out.
When will it be available?
It came out April 23rd in-store only at Blank Mag Books, 17 Eldridge Street, New York, NY, and will be online at some point in the future. I just wanted to make something for the BMX community; I spent so much time doing that. It's just photos to me, but when I step back and think about it, all these guys are pros, and I hung out with them. They're my friends, but some people might look different because it's like, "Oh, it's Hoder, and fucking Tom White." I never really thought about it that way ever.
Vic Ayala, Gas Station, 2000.
"This was on my first real trip, to Miami. This is just some random fucking gas station. That's probably the earliest photo in the book, and essentially what started this. I was so happy to just be on the trip. I had never been to Miami. It was super cool because we started in New Jersey and it was cold, and then headed south and slowly it got warmer, then sand and palm trees. We went all the way to Key West. Plus photos of me from that trip (shot by Jeff Z) were in my DIG Fragments feature in Issue 15. It was a big deal for me." - Edwin
George D's Bike, early 2000s.
"This is a photo of a bike completely decimated. The only part that was usable was a rim strip and maybe a tire. Me, Wiz (Brian Wizmerski), Bob (Scerbo), and George Dossantos were on a trip. We were driving back up from the south, maybe Miami. I don't remember; it was so long ago. It was Wiz's truck; he had a Chevy Blazer, and it had a bike rack. I put the bikes on the rack and I forgot to latch George's bike. We hit a bump and heard a crash. We pull over, and George's bike was gone. We walked back to go find it, and then it got ran over by an eighteen-wheeler truck. And I didn't know at the time, but I realized a day or two later, that it was my fault. (Laughs) So if you ever read this, George, I apologize. He didn't care, though." - Edwin
Steven Hamilton and Tyrone Williams, New York City, mid 2000s.
"This was around the mid 2000s and Hamilton was in town. Me, Steven, and Tyrone, I remember we took mushrooms and we just rode around downtown. This is the only photo I got from that night. It was fun. I haven't done it since, but it was sick." - Edwin
Vic Ayala, September 11, 2001.
"9/11 was a crazy day because it's 9/11, you know? Vic and I were staying at an apartment of my girlfriend at the time. We hung out a lot during that time period. It was just a normal day. We woke up, we were chilling and we heard the first plane hit. But we didn't know, because we didn't look out the window. She lived on the 17th floor facing south, so you could see it. But I wasn't looking because New York City's a very noisy fucking place. I just thought it was construction work, like a metal plate slamming down. Eventually I went to the balcony and I didn't even look straight ahead. I just looked down because I heard a lot of fire trucks and police going downtown. I was like, "What the fuck?" And I look at all the cops and fire trucks is going downtown, and everybody’s walking up. Then I looked up, "Holy shit. The building's on fire." And then the second plane hits. You hear planes a lot, but this one sounded low, and just boom, fireball. And then we watched TV. We just sat and watched from the apartment balcony, and we knew this was fucking insane. I didn't know how much the world would change at the time, but I just knew what we were watching was going to be talked about forever. I remember maybe a day or two after that, Vic, Vinnie, and I went down to the area. 14th Street and below from the east to west was completely shut down with army dudes armed with big assault rifles. There was a bunch of layers of security, but we snuck through, and we went down to where it happened, and it was just crazy, like, just like an inch thick of dust on all of the buildings. It was just weird because at that point I spent so much time in the city riding downtown, and those buildings cast a shadow, and now it was gone." - Edwin
Ruben Alcantara, Las Vegas, 2003.
"Ruben Alcantara, the fucking God. This was like, 2003, I think, because I was with him since we both rode for Etnies, and they flew us out to Las Vegas for the trade show. I just got on the team. We went to go check into the hotel and the people gave us the wrong room number. So we went up to the room and I tried to use a key, and somebody was already in there and opened the door. They made a mistake, so they upgraded us to this huge suite. Ruben started riding in the room. He rode full speed into the bed and flipped over. This is one of my favorite photos. It's Ruben. Super cool guy." - Edwin
"Gonz was my hero at the time, and I was on a trip with him. He was actually super cool, super funny; the whole crew was welcoming. This photo means a lot to me."
Edwin De La Rosa
Gonz, 2001.
"The photo of me and the Gonz is on a Sombra trip around 2001. At this point, he was my favorite bike rider ever. I watched Gonz's Props interview and it blew my mind; he had no brakes, and I had no brakes. I remember Seek and Destroy and On The Down Low came out around the same time. I went to the bike shop, and I bought On The Down Low and watched the video religiously. The music was crazy, but after a while I got into it. They all rode with no brakes. I just related to that so much because back then almost everybody had brakes. I was obsessed with all of them. Somehow Jeff Z. got invited to go on a trip. He then invited me and I went on a month-long trip. I took off school, and we took a Greyhound bus cross-country from New York to Phoenix. And then we drove from Phoenix over to Key West and back, and then I went to California and filmed my Turbulence part. Gonz was my hero at the time, and I was on a trip with him. He was actually super cool, super funny; the whole crew was welcoming. This photo means a lot to me." - Edwin
4130 Book Release - Blank Mag Books, NYC, APRIL 2026
"It's just photos to me, but when I step back and think about it, all these guys are pros, and I hung out with them. They're my friends, but some people might look different because it's like, "Oh, it's Hoder, and fucking Tom White." I never really thought about it that way ever."
- Edwin De La Rosa
For more info @blankmagbooks_nyc
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