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Matinee: 'Master Photographer Peter Joli Wilson'
9 April 2022
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 443rd in our series of Saturday matinees today: Master Photographer Peter Joli Wilson.
This 4:21 video edited by Jason Muir features the surfing photography of Peter Joli Wilson. That would be over 400,000 cataloged slide images (and even more since he went digital in the late 1990s) from over 40 years of chasing the sun and surf "as much a possible" around the globe.
It all started when his godfather gave him a camera instead of a bible for his Catholic confirmation. And it didn't hurt that his grandfather happened to be an amateur filmmaker and photographer himself.
"After saving up for over a year, Grandad showed me how to develop and print my very first photograph of me holding my very first surfboard," he told one interviewer. It was "a Gordon Woods 9'2" which I had partly saved up for and was co-purchased fro my 14th birthday. I had laced a roll of black and white film, the image was shot, then with the help of my grandfather we processed it and printed it."
His first surfing photo was published in 1972. He went freelance in 1989 when he began working with his wife.
He shows a few of his most famous images and tells their stories. But there are many more images presented throughout the video. And they're all winners. Gorgeous, vibrant winners.
His nickname Joli comes from his grandfather's surname Jolly but with a French spelling, which can be translated as "nice."
Which is putting it mildly when it comes to his astonishing photos.