Rob Dolecki on the Brian Foster Bubba Scrub Photo
The following interview by Nick Ferreira originally appeared in Challenger BMX Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1. Winter 2018 This photo was shot for Brian Foster’s interview in the March 2008 issue of Ride UK. BF’s style is timeless. What were your goals while photographing him for the interview? The main goal was to show BF in his favorite riding environment, which is his local concrete and dirt. Since he lives about an hour and a half away from me, it wasn’t difficult to meet up with him at FDR and a few trails spots in the region, most notably Posh and Catty. Some of the photos I shot were just byproducts of random riding days. Capturing the classic BF style everyone knows and loves was merely a matter of pushing a shutter button.
I was listening to the BMX in Our Blood podcast with Issac McCrea and he said something along the lines of “you never have a picture of someone doing a triple tailwhip on their wall.” Everyone says that they love “style” and “simplicity” but it seems like the opposite is pushed. It’s almost like even though everyone knows what they really want, they do what they think other people like. Why do you think that is? Groundchuck’s interview is a great listen. His perspective on riding rules; he makes a good point. For better or worse, I think it comes down to the traditional media/industry mold usually putting trick progression on the highest pedestal over anything else in recent years, especially in terms of video. I obviously feel trick progression should have merit, especially when it’s a building block for tomorrow’s riding. But I also think the exploits of the talented and gifted few who make everything from smith grinds to tabletops look better than everyone else, as well as ever-refining techniques on how something is ridden are other forms of progression that can hold just as much weight. Just because it’s an NBD or “world’s first” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most valuable. With all the open-ended media platforms and DIY print/videos coming out in recent years, there are plenty of media sources emphasizing riders who choose style, simplicity, and refinement of technique on well-chosen terrain over anything else - if you look for it. How much input did BF have on the photos for this interview? Did he have certain things he wanted to photograph? BF has always been the consummate pro, so he definitely had some specific ideas for what he wanted to shoot. Some of the photos used were those spontaneous “That looked badass- would you be into doing that again?” moments and others, like this and the FDR step-down transfer were Brian’s idea.
This is an unrelated question but I’m curious to hear your opinion. BMXers seem to be hung up on certain formats being “better” even if the final product is off, i.e. a 35mm photograph scanned poorly with dust all over it is “better” then an iPhone photo, a bad photo in print is better than a good photo on the web, etc. What’s your take on that? Basing your taste more on format over subject matter/quality has always seemed kind of goofy to me. I have my personal favorite formats when taking photos, but probably all of my most favorite BMX photos that I’ve ever seen weren’t shot in those. I get the whole “art” thing, and I’m a fan of any printed matter, but if it’s a bad photo (however someone defines it) in print, it’s still a bad photo, no matter what form it’s in.
People love this photo. Did you know it was going to be such a hit? Honestly, I don’t think I ever know if a photo going to be a hit or not. There have been multiple photos that I thought would be well-received, but never went past being scanned or dumped on a hard drive (I’m slacking on all that Instagram material). At the time, I did imagine this one might be something cool due to the awesome combo of BF, his style, and a basic roller. But I would have never guessed it was going to be the most lauded trails photo that I’ve shot. I didn’t know this was a square format photo. It was cropped to a landscape image for its final product. I think the final product printed in Ride UK looked great but how did you feel about it? And on that note, did you ever have any particularly bad crop jobs from designers? I don’t have access to that issue at the moment, so I forget exactly how it was cropped. Chris Noble was always dialed at his Ride UK layouts and never cropped stuff weird, so I don’t ever remember seeing a photo butchered by him. Yeah, I’ve seen some really cringe-worthy cropping of my photos; it was probably by designers who knew little to nothing about riding. But if the pay rate is good enough, anyone can do as much shitty cropping as they like to my photos without a word from me (laughter).
