You know Brian, THE Brian, our Brian, this Brian who lives out in the field more than children of the corn. In 2008, Brian Solano will be traveling the globe with some of the world’s best climbers, capturing all the action and personality that makes our sport what it is. He will be shooting for a new film from BS Productions titled “The Players,” due out in Spring 2009. In addition to his film work, he’ll be shooting photos along the way, bringing the honest- to-goodness slammers to the UC audience! An active contributor to Urban Climber since the magazine’s launch in 2004, Brian has consistently been reporting on the cutting edge. Currently, he’s in route to Hawaii for a trail running shoot... then it’s off to Chile for a ski shoot. Visit BrianSolano.com to check out his work, or follow his adventures at bsproductions.wordpress.com.
Emmanuel met Alain Robert on the way home from a photo project in Singapore three years ago. After being shown pictures of Alain climbing the world’s great skyscrapers, Emmanuel asked if he could be invited to shoot his next ascent. A few weeks later Emmanuel’s phone rang. Alain was going to climb Agbar Tower in Barcelona, Spain, and the rest, as they say, is history. The two are now inseparable in working out exclusives of Alain’s urban adventures.
Emmanuel, 35, was born in Paris. He says he got the “photo virus” when he was 17, after meeting photographer Robert Doisneau. From then on Emmanuel Aguirre traveled the world in search of the report, and contributed his art to countless magazines and media outlets. “For me the important thing was to make an aesthetic,” he says. “One like no other photographer ould envision – and that suddenly became my challenge.”
Emmanuel took that challenge with him to NYC, where he “juggled lenses, ran from the base to the top, jumped in a helicopter, and tried not to get arrested” for the shots of Alain climbing the New York Times building. This is Emmanuel’s first time working with Urban Climber, and we are sure it won’t be his last. Visit him at emaguirre.com.
Damo wants to set things straight: “Aren’t ya’ll sick of me YET? Well, just so you know, I do other things besides take sick photos — I rock climb. And this season I’ve been climbing a lot. I spent a month in Hueco, got fit, came home and sent my hardest climb to date, ‘Left Hand of Darkness’ at Tramway (v10), a personal goal. I slept easy after that and went on a new kind of binge, first ascent highballs. My good friend Joe Morgan (who’s also the Unearthed climber this issue) inspired me to step it up a notch this season. Joe has relentlessly put up first ascent highballs and back breakers for the past 7 seasons at Tramway; many haven’t seen a second ascent. Stand underneath one of them and you will see why. I realized I wanted to leave my mark at Tramway, like Joe and everyone else that has taken the risk to climb into unknown territory while first ascending a highball. It was my turn to give back to my beloved Tramway this season: Da Way (v3+, 28ft.), The Skeksi (v5, 25ft.), One Way Ticket to Hell (v6, 16ft.), Da Hook (v6, 22ft.) House of Pain, a.k.a. Michael Reardon Memorial Crack Problem (v7, 28ft.), and Supersonic (v8, 16ft.) Hopefully you all can give a little something back to your home crag this season. Brush a hold, get creative, take a risk, get people psyched — and if you can’t send it, give me and Joe a call!”
“I remember back in grade school, we used to get these simple paper folders called a Pee-Chee - They don’t make ‘em anymore, but anybody that went to school in the 1970s remembers them. They were cards literally folded in two with a pocket on each side to hold loose leaf school paper. Anyway, we used to custom make clear pockets on the covers of the folders with colored electric tape and clear plastic sheeting cut from a report folder. We’d take photos from surf and skateboard magazines (I grew up in Hawaii) and slide them in to the pockets - and, you know, display our favorite pix. I’d get so psyched on these surf and skate images by photography giants like Jeff Divine, Warren Bolster, James Cassimus, Aaron Chang, Grant Brittain, Glen E. Freidman, and so on and so on. And, anyways, we’d get to take these images around school and stare at them all day in class. To this day I’m still a major fan of other photographers works. If I had a Pee-Chee folder today, it would probably have photos by Tim Kemple, Keith Ladzinski, Corey Rich, and Snow photographer Will Wissman. Not only do these guys take inspiring, mind-blowing images, but they have all offered me a hand when I needed it. “Guys, thanks!”
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