Photo Book "North" Shows Spirit, Portraits of Oahu’s North Shore

In terms of exposure, the North Shore ain’t lacking. Since surfers started flocking there in the 1950s, it’s still the most referenced, documented and scrutinized place in the surf square. With photographers, surfers and scribes covering every inch of the place these days, it’s hard to think more could be unearthed from that hallowed stretch.

I’m happy to report that Brown W. Cannon III shattered that notion. His photos compiled in North are a 264-page testament to the North Shore’s unique culture and community. Far from just surf porn, the large, glossy prints display dozens of black-and-white portraits of icons, local chargers and wave-blessed families, all posing with their surf craft of choice. It also highlights local lifeguards, photographers, families and shapers. Of course, there are some arresting surf shots of Pipeline, Waimea and more. There are also 21 firsthand stories told to veteran surf journalists Steve Hawk and Bruce Jenkins, both former employees of SURFER, who Brown enlisted to give the book added depth.

“I’ve seen a lot of surf photos in my time,” Hawk said at a book signing. “And this guy’s are right up there.”

“There were many times during the life of this project when I asked myself what the hell I was doing. Since the completion of NORTH, three of the subjects have passed,” Cannon said. “Peter Cole, Pete Shea and most recently Tamayo Perry. With the death of each of these men, the meaning of the book has become more clear. There is value in documenting people and culture. Because while these men are physically gone, their stories, faces and the time I had with each of them remain. For that I am grateful.”

This article features select shots from North and an interview with Cannon about the process of compiling this collection, his appreciation for Hawaii and the importance of documenting one of surfing’s special subcultures.

SURFER: How long has this project been in the works?

Brown Cannon III: My sister gave me a photography book called SURFERS, by Patrick Cariou the day I graduated from ArtCenter College of Design in the Fall of 1998. I decided in that moment that I would strive to publish a book about surfing one day. I didn’t know what shape it would take, or when it would happen, but I always had my book, SURFERS, close at hand and it served as my inspiration for over 20 years. I can now say definitively that North spans three Eddies, 2009-2023, and that all of the portraits were photographed between 2018-2023.

What’s your relationship with Hawaii? Do you live there full-time?

Although I grew up in Colorado, my family owned some land at Ma?laekahana Beach, not far from the North Shore, and I’ve traveled there at least once a year every year of my life. Currently, my home base is Bend, Oregon, but I have spent 2-3 months during the winter on Oahu for many years now. Oahu had always felt like a version of home, but shooting North deepened my relationships and my understanding of the North Shore in ways that I had not foreseen.

The size and quality of the pages is remarkable. Why go to the effort to enlarge and enhance these photos?

I fell in love with photography in my parent's darkroom when I was just a kid. It was my connection to the art of printmaking that solidified my interest in becoming a professional photographer. I have always printed my own work and decided to treat the individual images in North as if they were part of a fine art portfolio. I was incredibly lucky that Damiani Books elected to publish North and that they granted me 100% freedom to design the book. The title, the scale, the layouts, the writers, the approach to the stories…every detail was orchestrated by myself and a stellar team. When it came down to choosing the size, I believed the only way for readers to sense the power of the subjects, the waves and the landscape of the North Shore, was to show it at a scale that was immersive. And although a photograph can never match the actual experience, the large size gets you a bit closer.

So much of the North Shore’s history and culture has been documented. Was there something you were trying to express or capture in this book you felt hadn’t been done before?

In my mind, photography is meant to document and record windows of time and to preserve them for future generations. I had a feeling that this particular window of time on the North Shore was a special one. It is a time when a handful of the original pioneers of modern surfing such as Jock Sutherland and Roger Erickson are still living and surfing, alongside younger legends like Mark Healy, Emily Erickson and Moana Jones-Wong. When this project was really set into motion in 2018, I had no idea what the next few years would bring. I didn’t know that women’s surfing would take an exponential upswing and that women would be surfing in the Pipe Masters and in the 2023 Eddie. I didn’t know that Kelly Slater would win the Pipe Masters at age 50 and I had no idea that the last event I would shoot for the book would be the greatest Waimea Bay surf that anyone had seen in our lifetimes.

What a remarkable window of time in surfing history. I feel so lucky that everything lined up the way that it did. Additionally, I spent a lot of time researching photography surf books. In this process, I never came across another large format photography book that focused specifically on the seven-mile stretch of the North Shore of Oahu, the people and its culture from Ka’ena Point to Kawela Bay. I saw that as an opportunity.

What did you hope to achieve by enlisting Bruce and Steve?

As the photo collection took shape, it became clear that a layer was missing. For the project to have real depth, it needed to include stories from the people who let me into their lives. In early 2022, I reached out to Mark Healey and asked, “If you were to choose anyone to write the stories for this book, who would it be?” He recommended Steve Hawk, the former editor of SURFER. Steve quickly invited his friend and fellow journalist Bruce Jenkins to join the team, and the three of us decided to pay homage to Hawaiian tradition by using a talk-story format for each interview. Some of the tales in North are funny, some are harrowing, some are triumphant, and some are profoundly personal. But all of them have, at their core, an unwavering passion for the sea. The portraits and their voices would now sit side by side.

Is it true you gave a book to everyone who had a portrait featured?

Yes. The book launched at the Ocean Club Lounge at Turtle Bay Resort this past December. The evening was designed as a thank you to everyone who was involved in bringing the book to life. A gallery of framed prints of the watermen and women lined the walls and everyone who had a portrait featured took home a copy of the book. It was humbling to have so many North Shore legends show up to support the project. It goes without saying that North wouldn’t exist without them.

What were your criteria for selecting the surf photos? Was it difficult limiting your selection? 

I have been a travel photographer for 25 years and so I took that storytelling approach by working closely with my long-time friend and designer Steve de Brun. The first action shot I photographed for the book is Mike Pietsch dropping into an outer reef wave on December 8, the morning of the 2009 Eddie. The first portrait I shot for the book was also taken of Mike Pietsch on February 18, 2018. Our friendship goes way back, so this made perfect sense. The last action shot in North was taken on January 22 at the 2023 Eddie. And the final click of the shutter happened on May 13, 2023.

That’s the portrait of John Florence. So the book covers three Eddies and countless events and moments in between. I scoured the 15 years of archives and narrowed the edit down to 500 selects. My kitchen counter then became ground zero. For three weeks, the pile of small work prints was continually rearranged and revised into highly organized layouts.

My wife, my kids, friends…everyone got involved. We formulated a mini version of the book. The greatest hurdle in the layout process was determining how to fill 272 pages without them becoming overly repetitive. As surfers, we are always thinking about what lies behind the approaching wave wondering what the next sets will bring. This is how I wanted the viewer to experience North.

Was there a particular portrait you really wanted to include that was difficult/satisfying to finally pin down?

To say that surfers are hard to nail down is an understatement. That is why it took 6 years to shoot 100 portraits. Haha. Some of the portraits happened quickly in a matter of frames like the shots of Keali’i Mamala, Garrett McNamara and Clyde Aikau, but others took 4 to 5 years to orchestrate. After 4 years of back and forth with John Florence’s agent, I had the opportunity to photograph him in his backyard.

That moment felt important because it defined the end of the project, but my real sense of pride was seeing all of the portraits side by side when I flipped through the book for the first time. Men, women, kids, old, young, families, surfers, shapers, bodyboarders, divers, photographers…We all know many of the faces and names in North, but the book also pays homage to many underground watermen and women who have never been in the spotlight. Together, the collective group defines a community of people at a specific point in Hawaiian surfing history.