Guadi Rabino
Staff Writer
One of Bo Bridges’ mottos is, “If you look at the action through the lens you miss the shot.” Bridges took this motto and turned it into an action packed photo that was featured on the cover of SURFER Magazine.
Bridges has traveled to over 35 different countries for his photography. In June 2015, professional surfer Alex Gray asked Bridges to shoot photos of him surfing in Tahiti. The photo Bridges captured ended up being on the Nov cover of SURFER Magazine.
“Tahiti was insane for me,” Bridges said. “Surfing is one of my favorite things in the world, and to be able to be featured on SURFER Magazine was a dream come true. There are thousands upon thousands of different photographs submitted and to get the cover shot for Surfer, I was totally blown away.”
SURFER Magazine was founded in 1959, and since then there have been approximately 400 covers published. As a lifelong fan and reader of Surfer, Bridges said that he is honored to be among its front page photographers.
“When Gray and I submitted the photos, SURFER told us they liked them and wanted to use the photos, but they never explained to what extent,” Bridges said. “I have been reading Surfer since I was young and to see my photo on the cover blew me away.”
Bridges is mostly known as an action sports and lifestyle photographer as he has shot advertisement campaigns all over the world. Bridges has earned recognition for his work in filming videos and capturing photographs for ESPN, Discovery and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”, of which appeared on the movie’s poster. However, most of the photographs he features in his Manhattan Beach gallery are primarily oceanic landscapes.
“The gallery is a personal business that I do on the side; it is more of a hobby to me than anything else. I love having it open everyday of the week and letting people walk in and see what I’m currently shooting,” Bridges said. “It brings a little culture to our community.”
Bridges’ interest in photography began after he attended high school in Zurich, Switzerland. During his senior year of high school, Bridges took his first photography class. He believes his attraction to the art stemmed from his grandfather and mother, who were both avid photographers.
“I fell in love with the black and white process,” Bridges said. “The dark room, rolling your own film, shooting and processing it was just magical to me at the time.”
For the past nine years, Bridges has been displaying his love for photography all across the South Bay. He started in a studio located in Downtown Hermosa Beach that he owned for six years and then in 2013 he moved to his current Downtown Manhattan Beach gallery called Bo Bridges Gallery located on Manhattan Avenue.
“I opened my gallery to showcase some of the artwork,” Bridges said. “You never really get to see my art, especially since there is not that much art down here in the South Bay. It is really hard to show your work if you go online but to really see it and blow it up big; I just went for it and opened my first gallery.”
Since he found his passion for the field at a young age, Bridges wants to pass on his devotion to photography and his experience with the art form to the kids of the community, he said. In 2016, Bridges plans to expand his business even further by holding photography workshops to help kids and teens develop a love for photography.
“I think that it would be fun to bring people in and talk about the process of how we shoot the photos,” Bridges said. “I just want to share my passion with the people in the community.”
Leave a Reply