I met Ali about two years ago. His friend Chris Böhm was in town for a show and their photographer couldn't make it. We'd been in contact at that time because Ali was working on some super sweet bicycle components and wanted me to do some 3D-CAD drawings for him. This might seem confusing but I actually spent my early twenties studying civil engineering...differtent story...
By that time I'd never taken pictures of anything moving or to be more precise I'd told everybody I was taking pics of to stand still, do this, look that way...etc.
Now I wound up in a mix of laying on the floor or running after the blond version of the Tazmanian Devil from Bitterfeld, being in constant worry about my borrowed wideangle lens.
The end of the story was that everybody was happy with the pictures but no matter how often I tried to get in touch with the photographer or the magazine there was no response.
A friend had an interessting theory about this.
He suggested that since the name of the mag was easily mixed up a more gay-hardcore related topic I might have just sent my messages to the wrong people...
Ali himself has been riding since 1985.
He was able to win lots of prestigious contests througout the 90ies, had guest appearences in music videos and did commercials in the last couple of years.
I love the Fanta spot!
My intention was to shoot as lightweight as possible, just Ali, me and the wideangle I paid for myself this time.
