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With surfing introduced to the continental United States in 1885 and popularized by Duke Kahanamoku's publicity tour in 1912, the first exploratory forays into mainland Mexico and Baja California were soon to follow. By the nineteen twenties and thirties, surfers seeking new experiences and settings were already setting off on both brief and extended voyages which led further afield, finally leading into Central and South America in the nineteen sixties and then beyond.
The photographic documentation of these voyages was shared firstly via the amateur efforts of travelers such as Dorian Paskowitz throughout the nineteen thirties and forties, through impromptu social gatherings as well as informal reproduction circuits. Soon to follow were the more sophisticated renderings of professional or semi-professional photographers such as John Elwell and later, Ron Stoner, which appeared in the local and newly-developing specialized press mediums, as well as in advertising efforts from California-based brands. These images, diffused at both the local and national levels, greatly contributed to the construction and perception of a subculture and lifestyle based around surfing.
In this paper, I would like to begin to explore not only the principal early actors of this documentation and their work, but also the mechanisms at work in their photography: the initial selection of sites and objects of focus, the repetition of photographic subjects, and perhaps most importantly the subsequent iconization of certain themes and artifacts. In short: Mexico through the prism of the nascent California surf culture.
Far from culturally anecdotal, the role of border crossing into Mexico in the development of a specific surf-related subculture is primordial. The early photographic representations of both Baja California and Mainland Mexico strongly contributed to the artifacts, rites, and visual imagery associated with a fringe lifestyle which has become in many aspects quintessentially popular culture – first in California and then increasingly globalized in nature.
