Lifestyle Mirror

Before the launch of his new book, Salted, award-winning photographer Thom Gilbert is showing his surf culture portraits at the Dorian Grey Gallery in New York City’s East Village until the end of October.

Gilbert’s collection of black and white close-ups feature the biggest names in surfing, many of whom he captures still dripping with salt water, showing, as Gilbert explains it, “the power of the wave, without actually being of the wave.” From Jack O’Neill, the man credited as the inventor of the wetsuit and founder of legendary surf company O’Neill, to 24-year-old Stephanie Gilmore, a five-time Women's ASP World Tour champion, Gilbert focuses on surfing’s biggest players and how they are all connected to one another. “It’s [surfing] a huge family of support,” he says.  

As part of Gilbert’s larger ongoing project, Iconic Americans—which has captured Texas oilfield rig workers, Alaskan fishermen, Detroit auto workers, and a traveling circus—these intimate portraits place surfing alongside other distinctively American traditions. “[Iconic Americans] deals with professions that have been handed down from one generation to another—professions that built the backbone of America,” Gilbert says. —Sasha Levine (@sashalevine)

437 East 9th Street, 516.244.4126.

Sale of limited-edition museum-quality posters will benefit the charity Surfer’s Way.