SB_issue55_Digital

news
A window
into surf
We catch up with Craig Levers,
internationally acclaimed and
award-winning photographer,
former editor of New Zealand
Surfing Magazine and, most
importantly, our good mate.
words: amber o'dell
Readers who are familiar with our story on Craig in edition 46
will remember him as the legend behind Photo CPL Media
and, as you know, our favourite all-time surf hardcover book,
The South Seas.
Craig’s photos are ever popular for encapsulating the spirit
of New Zealand’s beach, surf and landscape, which hasn’t
changed since Smorgasboarder last caught up with him in
2019. As you can imagine, we were eager to talk about his
newest projects.
When asked about what he’s been up to, Craig said two
things – bloody Covid and his brand-new book, NZ Surf
Windows.
“It’s been a minute aye, it feels like I’ve spent the last few
years in home detention. The Covid years really affected my
ability to shoot around the country, and a lot of surfing events
which I’d normally cover were cancelled. But on the swing
side, I got our troopy camper looking mint as, and Warren
Hawke and I made a new surf book.
“This one varies slightly from the others in the NZ Surf series
in that Warren has tried to reign his writing in – he didn’t do a
great job of that – and really let the images feature – he did do
a great job of that.
“NZ Surf Windows is a distillation of what we learnt working
on the other books. But it has the same focus, which is to be
highly inclusive of the entire New Zealand surf community.
There’s a large historical chapter, then there’s logging, high
performance, groms, shapers, places, artists, men and
women. You could say its highly unfocussed, but Warren really
thrives on the idea of being all encompassing and exploring
our Kiwi surf culture in depth.”
In total, Photo CPL Media has published nine hardcovers that
make for some stunning editions to anyone’s coffee table.
Craig’s new book marks the fourth he has published with
Warren Hawke, South Island’s most prolific surf photographer.
Naturally, we asked about the motivation behind doing another
collaboration.
“Money… haha – I wish. Nah, while all of the NZ Surf series
books have been successful financial projects, so that’s not
the primary reason. Warren and I both feel that we are adding
to and documenting some of that Kiwi surf culture. If you
read through the four NZ Surf Books you’d definitely be quite
conversant in that history. Unlike Oz, no-one has put together
a New Zealand Surf History Book. It’s been talked about, but
it’s an intimidating and huge project.
sb / #55 / 18