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Chris Marshall - Unseen Works

"When shooting a photo everyone has their process... just like when you go out riding"

13 Jan 2015

Words and photos by Chris Marshall

When I had realized that I had a good amount of stray photos piled up in a folder I hit up DIG in hopes that maybe Will Smyth (Dig's Founder/Editor) would have an idea for them. His suggestion was to do an Unseen Works gallery. I’m always hyped as hell to get photos of good people doing sick shit in proper places so I said “hell yeah!”

Now I really try to shy away from having to write anything in-depth, especially when it comes to something about photos I’ve shot but Will asked one really stood out to me, “Why did you shoot this?” It’s not a provocative question in a normal type of conversation but it definitely got my wheels turning. My initial blunt reaction to thinking about this was “shit was sick, shot it the way it happened” but that obviously doesn’t make for a good explanation either, so I started to think about it a bit more. Why did I shoot this the way I shot it? I guess when shooting a photo everyone has their process, just like going out riding. You warm up, you go check some shit out, then you go in. Or if your not feeling it, you say “fuck it.” Same thing with shooting photos just in a different realm of variables. You check out your angles, feel a couple out maybe, then based off what you see and what you like you go in and commit. The tension of getting the photo timed correctly and making sure you make your homie look sick can be nerve wrecking but the end result is well worth it. The true worth of shooting a ‘good’ photo is not only the vibe and excitement that you yourself experience but more importantly the satisfaction and excitement of your ‘subject’ after viewing the fruits of their labor and your representation of it. That to me is one of the most rewarding aspects of shooting and motivation for shooting.

All of these photos don’t have a home per say and that’s why they are all in this gallery, although somehow a link does actually exist. Between all these photos is a timeline of experiences that myself and friends have gone through. You guys get to have some insight into what happened via the captions but we all got to live it. The unifying aspect of all these photos is that they represent people living life the way they want to. Hopefully after reading this crap and peeping out the galley you guys get hyped to go live some life too.