Warren Hawke's new book NZ Surf Windows is about to drop. It's the fourth book we have collaborated on, along with the very talented graphic artist and fine artist Josh O'Rourke. The fourth in Warren's sell through book series NZ Surf. I've been tremendously proud to be a part of the process from day one. Warren has always been a photographic inspiration for me since I was 13. To work with the legend ...well, who gets to do that right!? I sort've get to sit back for the first half as the Was traipses country wide creating images and stories doing the long miles and hard mahi. The second half is where I waltz on into the role of publisher, distributor, purse string holder and seller.
That said this time round Was did push me harder to contribute more of the content. It's a strange role nowadays, for the last year or so I've been under instruction from the author not to share the A grade for social platforms. Save it for the book, at peril of it being passed over for the book- no premature show'n'tells.
Case in point; Luke Grubb; kept off the socials, wasn't allowed to even share with Luke! That Was, he's a taskmaster.
NZ Surf Windows is distillation of the formula Was used in NZ Surf The Collection Vol 1 and 2. Both those books sold out. But Was evolved the formula, NZ Surf Windows, while still based on the same concept of being highly inclusive of the wider NZ Surf community, the design of the book is a lot cleaner. It's a tough role for an author/photographer/photo editor; cull the good shots, the images that supplement the story, let the great shots breathe. Was has always wanted his books to be as encompassing as possible, so this distillation of an already proven formula was challenging. But you can see on the pages of NZ Surf Windows there is a more refined approach.
Was plays with the concept of Windows. Windows to the past, swell windows and the windows of opportunity surfers crave and seek. The theme ties in all the chapters of the 200 page book well.
I probably should use this opportunity to hard sell the book, guised as an impartial review. But dude, I fricken published the thing. While neither Was or I will be resting on the laurels of past successes, nor will we be relaxing already knowing 33% of the 1600 print run is already pre sold into book stores nation-wide [hold on that means we got another 66% to off-load, that went from half full to half empty real fast!]
Pre sales of NZ Surf Windows are now open, as with the past NZ Surf books the print run is limited to what we know we can sell. A reprint is not planned.