Toronto-based photographer Scott Pommier began his photographic career pointing his lens at skateboarders. But more recently the biker culture of North America has found a pleasing home in his viewfinder. Scott’s biker pictures document the new media-sussed generation of revhead that’s stalking the continent on stripped-down customised machines. In look and feel lines appear blurred between the realms of straight-ahead documentary and the cool aesthetic of fashion. The bikes take centre stage meanwhile, as totems of American freedom.<\/p>\n
We spoke to to Scott and hit him with six simple questions.<\/p>\n
Why photography?<\/em> I didn’t start off looking to get a Harley. I just wanted a bike. I didn’t have anyone to ask about bikes so I just flipped through a cycle trader, and I’d just look through, and think, no…no…no, oh, that one I like, what’s that one. and it was always the sportsters. That was all I could afford, but they also just looked like a plain motorcycle. I liked that. There were also lots of them around. It was big enough to take on the freeway, but it looked managable. When I moved to vancouver, all my caf\u00e9 racer riding friends sorta rolled their eyes when I showed up with a ‘Harley.’ Canada or America?<\/em> Film or digi?<\/em> Scott Pommier documents a new generation of American biker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1780],"tags":[1001,2811,2812,342,585],"class_list":["post-1984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-people","tag-american","tag-american-bikes","tag-harley-davidson","tag-motorbikes","tag-photography","manufacturers-harley-davidson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIt sprang from my love of skateboarding. I used to flip through skateboard magazines endlessly. I didn’t really read them, I just looked at the pictures. Pretty early on, I decided that if I couldn’t make it as a professional skateboarder, being the photographer would be pretty cool too. I think I may have wanted that to be my retirement plan after skateboarding, I never quite got good enough to crack the pro ranks, so I got started on my retirement plan early.
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\nWhy motorcycles?<\/em>
\nYou know, it’s actually the one part of my life I try not to really scrutinize or question. They don’t make any sense. I just wanted one. I remember visiting Vancouver when I lived in Toronto, and some friends I had out there had bikes. We were at the skatepark just getting ready to leave and they jumped on their bikes and I had to follow in my car. I felt like I was really missing something. that was when the seed was really planted.
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\nWhy Harley Davidson?<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nV-Twin or V8?<\/em>
\nAs much as I like juice that tastes like Campbell’s Soup, nothing quite sounds like the rumble of knucklehead.<\/p>\n
\nI have a great fondness for each. Canada is home but America is home to a lot of my favourite things.<\/p>\n
\nFilm by a mile. Shooting with a digital camera is a consession that I make when it’s necessary, when film is really not an option, but everything that I shoot for myself is on film. A lot of people have discussed and debated the pros and cons, there’s nothing I can really add to the conversation. But I know what’s right for the pictures that I want to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"