8 Photos
James Katsipis was far from the ideal student at East Hampton High School. Class simply wasn’t for him—and he preferred to skip.
Trouble was, he often got caught.
“I saw that kids in the photography class were never bothered by the hall monitors,” he recalled. “If you had a camera, it was like you had a pass.”
One Canon Rebel later, he had signed up for the class, swiftly earned himself an “F”—and, simultaneously, discovered his life’s passion.
Turns out, it wasn’t a total waste of time. The Montauk native, who graduated in 2001, learned the basics and evolved—shooting what he knew best, and learning by doing. For him and his social circle, that meant surfing.
“I grew up on the beach,” said Mr. Katsipis, who caught his first wave at age 13. “When I got older, my friends and I started surfing Atlantic Terrace. We were ‘Terrace rats.’
“I would just click away,” he continued. “I really didn’t have a clue.”
He has since figured it out. The amateur turned professional at age 21, when Eastern Surf magazine and its photo editor, Jimmy Wilson, published his work. “It was my first paying job,” Mr. Katsipis said, “but, most of all, I saw my first photo in print with my name on it. It got my fire burning. I wanted to do it again.”
He said he sought out advice from well-known surf photographers and maintained a relationship with Mr. Wilson, who was a well of advice. “I would send him, like, 300 photos,” Mr. Katsipis said. “He would tell me, ‘Here’s what you need to do. Anticipate your shots. Stop shooting in JPEG form, shoot RAW form. It’s a higher color gamut.’
“I would sit on the beach all day taking photos,” he continued, “from morning to dark. My friends would bring me food. I just practiced, practiced, practiced. Learning the skills.”
When he’s not on land, Mr. Katsipis shoots in the water for approximately two hours at a time, kicking with his swim fins to stay afloat as the frigid water crashes around him. Waves are best and bigger in the winter, he explained, and that comes at a cost.
There is only so much his 6-millimeter wetsuit can do, he said, even with a hood, 5-millimeter gloves and 7-millimeter booties. His hands feel like they’re on fire underwater, and he often shakes them to get his blood flowing. Otherwise, he can’t pull the camera’s trigger.
But when he does, the 32-year-old photographer is able to stop the action of a powerful wave, shooting through the curl to catch a veritable kaleidoscope of colors from the water, sun and sky, just inches from the surfers sailing by.
“I love the feeling I get when I’m out there with them,” he said. “I’m not surfing, but I’ll get that same rush when they fly by me inside a barrel, and I’m in the barrel with them. I get beat up by the wave sometimes—but if you want the shot, it comes with the territory.”
This past winter, reporters called Mr. Katsipis “crazy” on national television when they descended upon the East End during winter storm Juno, as it barreled up the coast in late January with predictions of high winds, coastal flooding and heavy snows.
To Mr. Katsipis and his pals, that sounded like an ideal beach day with big waves.
They drove to the Montauk Lighthouse during the height of the storm and were surprised to see a van there. It belonged to a crew from CNN, and Mr. Katsipis, on scene to film surfers, became a “must-interview,” he said.
“I later sent them some of the film of the boys surfing,” he said. “The interview and surf scenes were picked up by television stations around the world. I heard from my cousin in Athens, Greece, and got emails from surfers in Australia and people in Africa who saw the footage.”
The short film, “Travel Ban,” that Katsipis shot that day is mesmerizing. Watching the surfers riding the 8- to 10-foot waves to the sound of Pearl Jam’s cover of The Who’s “Love, Reign O’er Me” as the snow cascades down has a surreal quality about it, as do the stills. One particular shot of three surfers trudging through the snow—used by The East Hampton Star that week as a front-page image from the storm—evoked this comment: “What intrigues me about James’s photograph is it is timeless. Could have been taken 100 years ago on a 4-inch-by-5-inch field camera. The landscape is untouched, except by the three brave surfers and James. They had the perfect storm, and now the perfect photograph.”
It’s quite a compliment—especially coming from the masterful Walter Iooss, best known for his award-winning sports photography for Sports Illustrated and other publications, who lives not far from another legend, Peter Beard, in Montauk.
“Peter Beard used to come into my family’s restaurant, MTK Cafe, on Main Street and we’d talk shop,” Mr. Katsipis said. “Walter Iooss used me as an assistant on a couple of his shoots. He’s the master of light when it come to photography.”
With further success with his “Mermaids of Montauk” series, Mr. Katsipis said he will never forget where he came from. He recently wrote to Mr. Wilson, explaining how much his help had meant to a novice photographer, and assured him the tradition continues. “Now I’m doing that, helping the young guys,” he said. “You get what you give.”
Right now, life couldn’t be better, Mr. Katsipis said. In September, he is marrying jewelry designer, and shark wrangler, Bella Ornaf, on the beach. “She does the cage dives,” he explained. “Puts the tourists in the cage and she’s outside. She has me swimming with the sharks now.”
Sounds like a perfect match.
James Katsipis will exhibit his photography in “EAST 2.0,” alongside work by other local artists, starting July 11 at the Atlantic Terrace Motel in Montauk. For more information, visit jameskatsipis.com.
on May 19, 2015