bryan derballa | Fecal Face

MINIVAN DAMAGE
Tuesday, 24 January 2012 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

I shot a campaign that trolled through a few cities last month. These are the after-hours photos. In Miami we got a glimpse of Art Basel. Then stopped off at the aquarium in Boston. Spent most of our time in Austin at the Whole Foods. Blew through SF only slowing down to catch the sunset. And bombed hills in Echo Park in a minivan. -Bryan Derballa

STALKED
Saturday, 29 October 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

Lost in the cornstalks. Chased by masked men picking up extra work at harvest time. Brandishing a plastic sword and a chainsaw missing its chain. A deranged clown refusing to break character. Gripping fear, tightening chest. New Jersey is where I came to die.

MOONSHADOWS ON THE POND
Friday, 19 August 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

We revisited the abandoned summer camp from last year. It was a full moon. The night was beautiful. -Bryan Derballa

LAST SUMMER
Monday, 01 August 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

I don't always carry a camera around like I used to. Sometimes it's nice to leave it at home. But it's increasingly rare that I'll have odds and ends photos that come from having a camera on hand at just the right moment. Most of what I shoot now is for projects, series, and assignments. Those occasional flashes of inspiration that used to make up the majority of this blog now get tucked away onto hard drives, hidden amidst the terabytes of assigned work. This week it's officially summer, so I thought I'd dig through the archives and see what I'd forgotten. These are salvaged from the summer of 2010. -Bryan Derballa

THE LONG WHITE WAVE
Wednesday, 20 July 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

The whole purpose of my trip to New Zealand was to photograph veteran surfer Cory Lopez and his experience at the Cold Water Classic for Huck Magazine. Professional surfing is one of those dream jobs -- traveling eight months a year to the most beautiful places in the world only to spend the whole day on the beach. I tried go deeper and demystify the experience. But all in all, it's pretty damn good living.

RECOLLECTING NEW ZEALAND
Monday, 06 June 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

My first night in New Zealand I walked down to the beach. While sitting in the sand taking arty, self-indulgent photos of crashing waves, I realized how long it had been since I'd seen stars, and that there were so goddamned many. Nine years earlier I had the same realization, also in New Zealand, laying in a field amazed at the infinite nature of the universe. I studied abroad there in 2002, my first trip out of America. Then last March, Huck Magazine sent me back to photograph surfers at New Zealand's first pro contest. I did that but those photos are for another day. These pictures are the result of the week after the contest. A week that I spent trying to relive my first visit to New Zealand. Alone, with little more than my nostalgia, independence, and a $10 sleeping bag, I set off in a rental car looking for swimming holes, skateparks, and that feeling of the unknown, fraught with possibility, that New Zealand will always represent to me. -Bryan Derballa

CRICKET PITCH
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

I've always wanted to go to India. Then I did...for three days. Can't quite cross it off the bucket list, but it was a good glimpse into the country from the cricket pitch. To put together a lookbook for NIke, I traveled to Dheli and Mumbai to shoot two players from India's National Cricket Team -- a young batter named Virat Kholi and a veteran bowler named Zaheer Khan. Both rad guys, which made it all the better that they won the Cricket World Cup two weeks ago. Couldn't be more stoked for the team and look forward to getting back for a more extensive visit.

Words and photos: Bryan Derballa

XXCOMMUNICATED
Saturday, 22 January 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

It was 4AM and the streets of Philadelphia were wet and shiny. One of the guys in the entourage started skitching on the side of old-ass limo, the kind with the boomerang attached the trunk, when a middle finger presented itself from out the window. Certainly one of the more brilliant things I've seen at that hour.

It was either a roadie or a townie, but he bet me $100 that I couldn't kickflip on his longboard. The board was about as long as a car bumper and the wet griptape was slicker than a seal. But through sheer force I pulled it off. Of course I didn't get the $100. But I think I did earn the respect of Jamie Smith from The XX who I'd been photographing for my first feature for The FADER. It was our last few minutes hanging out, after days of slinking through greenrooms and backstage of theaters. Going into this, I knew two things about Jamie -- that he was a musical genius and that he was notoriously quiet. Talking with him, I learned that he was a skateboarder. We bro'ed down over that and Jamie let me do my thing.

But still, having some creepy dude (me) follow you through the innards of a theater or the afterhours club with a camera always dangling from his neck doesn't really have a calming effect. At least until my kickflip. Then wading through the soggy streets to the tour bus, I finally felt like one of the gang. Even if I didn't take any more pictures, I knew I could and it would be alright. Even if it couldn't change the content of the photos I already shot, it did change what they mean to me. This is my friend of a few days, Jamie XX, and this is his story.

Bryan Derballa 2010 Photos
Thursday, 06 January 2011 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

Our buddy Bryan Derballa compiles his favorite photos he took in 2010 and writes:

2010 was like a bowl of cereal but I forgot the soymilk, then decided to use ice cream instead, which gave me a stomachache, but was still worth it.

FASHION WEEK OUTTAKES
Friday, 08 October 2010 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

More from a week that lasted eight days. Bryan Derballa continues his photo blog from behind the scenes of NYC's fashion week. - round one

Bodies in Urban Spaces
Tuesday, 05 October 2010 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

Downtown Manhattan at dawn on a Sunday is a very peculiar place. Then a group of artists performing a piece called "Bodies in Urban Spaces" by choreographer Willi Dorner made it that much stranger. Yet delightful. -Bryan Derballa

A CHIFFON ILLUSION ~NYC Fashion Week
Thursday, 30 September 2010 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

Bryan Derballa. goes behind the scenes of NYC's Fashion week and brings back this photoblog.

Summer Camp
Thursday, 02 September 2010 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

Bryan Derballa and friends getting the most out of summer with a trip to the river... over there on the East Coast.

CELEBRATING SOUTHWISE
Thursday, 22 July 2010 /// Written by Bryan Derballa

I went to a wedding in North Carolina last month. It consisted of a potluck in a horse pasture, cooling off in the crick, fireworks, and camping. The dancefloor felt like a tent revival. It was all so sincere. That's why I love NC.