Pep Williams

"The Perfect Storm". This image came about when Williams was hanging out with Jay Adams in Oahu on the North Shore in 2010. What's special about this image is at this moment Jay didn't know he was being photographed. A true candid moment. Moments before the image was taken Jay was giving advice on life and relationships to a young girl sitting on the ground next to him. The phone rang and she left to answer it. Williams was sitting across from Jay and saw a look come over his face. It was like he was going over everything in his head what he had just told the young girl. The camera was sitting in Williams's lap, and he was hoping the camera was in focus and begin to shoot 3 frames from his lap.

Williams began working as a professional photographer in 1996 when a photographer who had been scheduled to document a fashion show that he was doing as a model was booked on another job and couldn't attend. As the designer was desperately searching for a replacement, it was revealed that the job paid six-thousand dollars. Seizing the opportunity, Williams immediately declared to the designer, "I'm also a photographer" and was hired on the spot, even with the absence of an actual photographer's portfolio. He made it through that first job with the help of a skilled photographic assistant he hired to handle the technicalities, something he had observed notable photographers do innumerable times. More jobs followed, but as he came into his own as a photographer, he found himself rapidly tiring of the fashion world and began to focus on fine art portraiture, mostly of his friends; skaters, musicians, artists, drug dealers and gang members.

A third-generation Dogtown skater, Williams started skateboarding in 1975 at the age of four and throughout his youth was influenced by important Californian skaters of the time such as; close friends Jay Adams, Christian Hosoi, Aaron Murray, Natas Kaupas, Julien Stranger, Eric Dressen, and Kareem Campbell. Williams himself went on to become a pro skateboarder within the industry, appearing on a 1991 cover of Thrasher Magazine, and numerous advertisements in many magazines and commercials.