Surf Photography Greats: Jeff Divine and Art Brewer

There’s a lot to enjoy when you spend a warm summer evening at the Pacific City Center in “Surf City, USA” aka Huntington Beach, CA. For starters, it’s a beautiful retail center on Pacific Coast Highway right across from the Huntington Beach pier. The view of the ocean and the accompanying ocean breezes are refreshing and inspiring. The center is loaded with fun, unique shops, and the home of the Pacific City Art Gallery.

Design Matters, News & Announcements, Photography, Surf Industry, Through the Lens / no responses … yet!
Posted 5 years ago

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of dropping by the Pacific City Gallery where friends from our Surfer Magazine days, Jeff Divine and Art Brewer, were wrapping up their photography gallery show, displaying iconic shots from their collective photographer careers. Divine and Brewer were inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame this year for their contributions to surfing culture. That is a major honor.

The Surfing Walk of Fame site describes inductees like this:

“Like the Walk of Fame for Hollywood stars, this stretch of sidewalk located next to Jack’s Surfboards (in Huntington Beach) pays tribute to the immortals of surfing. An induction committee made up of approximately 80 international surf industry notables submits it’s choice for each of six categories: Surf Culture, Local Hero, Surf Pioneer, Surf Champion, Woman of the Year and Honor Roll. The Surfing Walk of Fame induction ceremony is held annually in conjunction with the US Open of Surfing competition. Past inductees include Sean Collins, Eddie Aikau, Greg Noll, Andy Irons, Tom Curren, Dick Dale and Hobie Alter.”

Jeff and Art have dedicated their lives to bringing beautiful and awe-inspiring images into our lives. Arguably the best surf photographers of all time, Jeff and Art’s body of work span over 50 years, and captures the true beauty of surfing and the characters who make it such a dynamic sport.

We were thrilled to attend the closing night of their combined gallery show, and talk story with them about the waves and people that were fortunate enough to be on the other side of their cameras. The saying goes “that a picture is worth a thousand words”. I can assure you, it’s way, way more than that.

Thanks again Jeff and Art, We hope you know how much joy your photos have provided to us for all these years.

We left the show feeling both enlightened and melancholy, kind of like the feeling you get after your high school reunion. It was really great seeing the guys and some of their best iconic early photography, and at the same time knowing that those magical decades in surfing of the 70’s and 80’s are gone forever. Only the waves remain the same.

We did leave with our own list of favorite photos. One of Jeff’s is already on it’s way to our office, and we’ve got our eyes on a few Brewer shots for the office and home.

Take a moment to peruse their websites. You’ll sit down for a minute and stay for an hour enjoying all the amazing shots.

jeffdivinesurf.com and www.artbrewer.com

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