Location:
Born in Scotland, raised in Singapore, and lived in Vancouver, Canada for a few years now. I love this city.
How long have you been shooting?
6 years. First camera was a Nikon Coolpix 3700, and it’s been Nikon cameras ever since.
Film or digital?
Digital. I grew up with it.
As for film… Here’s a story from my friend, photographer Stuart Kennedy:
“A few years ago when I first met David Lang he was digital crazy, and being an analog type of person I felt the need to basically shove film down his throat. We were out photographing some small rail in UBC and I handed David Lang my completely manual film SLR. He looked as if I had just handed him a moon rock and said: “OK now use this to make soup.” But he took it in stride, and after he figured out the strange dials and nothing being auto, he began photographing with my camera. Eventually the riding died down and we made our way back home. When we arrived at my place we all got out of the car, and David Lang excitedly proclaimed “let’s see the photos now!” A bit confused, I assumed he was talking about his digital shots and left the matter alone, but he followed me around to the trunk with an eager grin, pointed at my camera and said “OK let’s open it up and see the photos!”. I guess they have that tricky self developing film in Singapore.”
I can now proudly say I’ve shot with 35mm, 110, 120, and large format cameras. Have also developed and printed in the darkroom. But I still like photochop better.
Best thing you’ve ever shot?
If I had to pick one - the Red Bull Elevation contests. All three were amazing… the stars aligned for them.
Fave rider to shoot with?
Travis Collier stands out.
Dream riders to shoot with?
Steven Hamilton / Ian Schwartz / Ruben Alcantara / Chase Hawk
What do you tell security when they try to throw you out of spots for taking pics?
Gnarwhale is bringing die schlampen, so hang tight!!!
Do you ever get burned out on shooting photos? What do you do to keep things fresh for you?
When I get too nerdy about doing one thing and one thing only, my creation process becomes a snake eating its own tail. Gotta consciously force myself to try new and different things every so often, regardless of what it is. New perspectives are crucial. That and taking breaks. Must let the brain refresh between obsessive projects and ideas.
What’s in the future for you?
I plan to spend the next 3 months of Summer continuing with the photo taking and also branching out into other forms of media - that and applying more focus on the lovely underground (Lighta!) music scene in Vancouver.
Where can we see more of your work?
In the process of a website redesign, so I haven’t updated my portfolio for a while since I’m saving new content for the new one. However, just put a lot of work into a 4-part series on Red Bull 3Style 2009 - a cross-Canada DJ competition tour - which you can see on my blog here. And I have a computer screen tan, evidenced by: Twitter, flickr, ffffound, and WeMineDeeper.
Also, some of my work can be downloaded for content use courtesy of Red Bull by searching my name on the Red Bull Photofiles website.
