Full throttle. Pedal to the metal. Balls to the wall. That's Anthony. We first met him at an Urban Surf Boards 'n' Brews event in the summer of '18 and after becoming friends he ended up throwing our official launch party the following spring. The kid oozes passion and drive, whether it's hustling for his photography biz or pumping out books (he's launching his second at the shop on September 18th) and using the fruits of his energy to chase surf in Central America or California. Back in early July we sat down and chatted about work, bikes, and traveling.
Hey, Anthony. Happy Heat Wave.
Hey Mike, this heat's rough but at least we can do outdoor activities! Lots of time on the water!
Was that you riding by the shop the other day?
Yeah I was rippin’ around with my buddy, we were going for a nice Friday afternoon cruise. Then his throttle cable locked up and he was flying down Riverside Drive with no hands while the bike was getting gas, which was pretty awesome but it was just a little dangerous so we had to go back to his place to quickly fix it.
What are you riding these days?
I still got my Harley 883 sporty, with a little style added to it. I love my bike, I’ve been on it so much this year, it’s great.
COVID interrupted our planned 2nd Art Shop Drink, a real bummer. The first one was so fun.
I was super bummed, I had the whole thing planned, bands, artists, I even had the poster designed. But what’re you gonna do, gotta stay alive.
I remember at the first one, you sold that pink bag to Eugenio!
I’m the unspoken secret salesman for the shop.
With the best commission rates, too.
Ha!
So let’s chat about your photography biz. Tell us a bit about it. Do you mostly do weddings?
I do photograph a lot of weddings but I wouldn’t say it’s where I make most of my money. It probably accounts for 45-50%. I shoot a lot of stuff, I do a lot of commercial work, head shots, families, products, branding photos, food, real estate, events, newborns, I shoot it all! I keep pretty busy with everything else. I’ll really see this year how much weddings make an impact on my business because I really don’t have very many left due to COVID. It’s okay though, most of them just moved to next year.
What are some of your favourite projects?
I do really enjoy shooting everything on the business end but what I really love, where the heart of my passion lies, is in all the art photo projects I have going on. Currently I’ve been shooting a lot of self portraits and friends, making cool photos out of them. I’m always thinking up and planning new art shoots. I like to break down my art photos into four categories: travel and lifestyle, street, portraits and music.
And your book release is coming along? Give us an update.
In November 2019 I went to Popoyo, Nicaragua for the third time. Popoyo is a small town on the west coast of the country with great surf. My newest book, named after the town, is compiled of my favourite photographs from this most recent trip as well as an interview with that local writer, Layan Barakat. I began working on the photos as soon as I returned from the trip and I started designing the book in late March. I’m super happy with how it turned out. I can’t wait to throw the release party. I want to have the books laid out everywhere, I built these cool frames in a style I’ve never done before for all my favourite photos that I’m going to hang on the walls. I want live music, food, drinks, surf videos & more at the party. Of course the event is taking place at Pressure Drop!
We can’t wait either! I think we’ll try to make it work outside to keep people as safe as possible.
That would be sick.
So since the photography has slowed down but you aren’t really a sit-at-home-and-twiddle-your-thumbs kind of guy, what are you doing in the meantime?
With running a business, even when there’s no specific jobs there's always something to do, so I’ve been doing a lot the small things I never had time for before. My studio is in my back yard so I work from home, just in a separate building, so during the beginning of quarantine I did a lot of housework. The whole time I just really put a lot of work into my art work and projects I had going on, working on current ones and planning new ones for when things go back to normal! It’s been a lot of fun!
At least you’ll have enough money for travel once we’re allowed to. Any trips planned?
Yeah, hopefully in early December we’ll be able to travel again and I want to head down to Central America somewhere to surf/shoot photos for a week or two. But for now I have a ton of camping trips planned for this summer in Ontario so that’s cool! I really, really want to go back to New York City as soon as I can as well to shoot street photography, it’s been a year and a half since I was last there so that’s high on the list.
And you love California, too, right? I seem to recall you were over there last year.
Three times last year! If the borders open up I plan to drive down to California for about 4-6 weeks next winter and live out of my car around the whole state doing anything fun - surfing, shooting photos, camping, hiking, rock climbing, skating, dirt bikes, shooting guns, you know, the good stuff ahah. Then my friends are going to come down for 10 days or so for my bachelor party so we’ll hang out in Santa Monica or Venice and just have a good time doing fun stuff and on the weekend we’re gonna drive to Vegas for two nights as well. I’m not a big partier but you gotta go to Vegas for your bachelor party if you're only a couple hours away!
And you got to go to the Deus Ex Machina Emporium of Postmodern Activities in Venice! That store was a big inspiration for Pressure Drop.
Yeah, that place is just a great time man! I went to their spring launch party one night with my buddy Jordan who lives down there. I actually met him in Iceland at 5am in a snowstorm at the airport over 2 years ago. We’ve met up twice over the last two years, he’s a solid dude! So yeah, I saw they were throwing that party so I shot him a text, we met in Venice beach, grabbed some tacos and headed up to the store. The party was wild, a ton of motorcycles out front, free to enter, free food, free beer and free tequila! Like what?! We sat at the same table as the drummer from Alice In Chains for a bit. California’s a time, man!
I want to know more about your pal Dave Vieceli. Dude turns up at the shop with a modified vintage windsurfing board on top of his Subaru!
LOL, Dave’s my best friend, we do all this crazy stuff together. He garbage picked that board last year, took it out to the water, tied it with a rope to a jet ski and we had his cousin tow us on it, we lay down and hold on and as he starts to go we popup and surf it as it gets pulled. Sometimes you just gotta improvise!
Dave seems like the kind of guy who quietly goes about things and then one day will just like land on your front lawn in a spaceship.
LOL, yeah, that sounds about right. It’s not uncommon for him to go to a foreign country alone for weeks and weeks on end to just chill & have a good time!
Follow Anthony at: @anthony.sheardown and be sure to drop by his new book release party on Friday, September 18.
Interview: Mike