Whether they’re shooting wildlife, weddings, or action sports, photographers are artists at heart. But when it comes to paying the bills, it’s not necessarily the most intriguing images that earn them their paychecks.
For the last two years Margus Riga has been shooting photos for Sombrio clothing, and recently they teamed up to create the Sombrio x Margus Riga Forest Collection. Sombrio noticed there were a lot of great images left out of this year’s catalogue, so they created a pop-up gallery to show off some of Riga’s more artistic material.
Held last Saturday at the Forlise store in Whistler village, the event served to showcase the Forest Collection, kick off the Whistler Bike Park season, and raise some money for local trail development with 22 framed prints up for auction…
Several pieces of the Sombrio x Margus Riga Forest Collection were on display, including the men’s Renegade jersey , LTD Photo Print Tee and Spun gloves, plus the women’s Vista jersey. The full collection also includes a grom-sized Renegade jersey, and the Cypress flat-brim trucker hat. All pieces in the line feature one of Riga’s images of the iconic British Columbian forest.
Proceeds from the auctioned photos (and the $2 craft beers from B.C’s Postmark Brewing Co) were donated to Whistler’s MTB governing body WORCA (Whistler Off Road Cycling Association) to help them maintain the municipality’s public trail network.
Riga was stoked to have Sombrio approach him about showcasing some of his photos that look great, but get passed over for ads or catalogues in favor of images that display the products better.
“These shots are a little bit more on the artistic side, with some motion blurs and different kind of lighting that normally wouldn’t get shown in print. They said they want to show these… So I kinda just jumped at the chance” said Riga.
Sticking with all black and white photography for the auction was also Sombrio’s idea. They liked the artsy character of Riga’s black and white images so much they selected one as the opening shot in their current catalogue. Of course, Riga was pretty happy with the location and timing of the gallery too:
“It’s opening weekend in Whistler, and to have a show the second day of the bike park opening is just amazing. I was riding today, then came back from my ride and came to my show. How good is that?!”
I asked Riga which of the 22 prints was his favorite, and he led me to this image of Darren Berrecloth and gave me the back story. The guys were shooting on a typical dark and rainy B.C. day, when Berrecloth asked Riga ‘What do you want to see?” and Riga suggested a big ol’ seat grab. Berrecloth sent the jump and stretched this huge indian air on the first try. Thankfully Riga nailed the shot, just moments before the rain started hammering down.
