All Summer in a Day Pt. 1: Chasing the California Dream - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

All Summer in a Day Pt. 1: Chasing the California Dream

At home in Ventura, the surfer, skater, and always-adventuring photographer shoots from the heart, Ventura

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Cross paths with Dylan Gordon in his home city of Ventura, and chances are, you’re lucky you’ve managed to find him there…

Dylan is best known for his photography that centers around surfing, skating or motorcycles. At any given time, he could as easily be found at an art show in Japan, biking across the Himalayas, or piled amongst friends in the van he’s used for impromptu getaways for years, driving up and down the coast in search of the unfamiliar. “I’m gone 70 to 80 percent of the year,” he says. “In two days, I could fly to Nepal. I don’t ever really know.”

The community he’s found after six years in Ventura helps obscure the line between work and play. “It’s about surrounding yourself with people who inspire you. Fortunately, here in Ventura, we’re surrounded by such amazing, talented surfers, photographers, filmmakers—it’s all here. We have created a very unique community of like-minded people. We all want to live, surf, and adventure—that’s why we stay here and that’s why we have this cohesive bond. There’s no ego and no competition. Everyone’s just here because we love to do what we do.

FvF have always been drawn to the Californian lifestyle, shaped by the energetic coastline and endless summer days. Together with Visit California we’re proud to follow the creative community who have settled in the Golden State with natural wonders right at their doorstep.

An Adventurer’s State of Mind

Dylan’s photography fuels his passions for surf, skate, and the great outdoors

Further fostering a sense of togetherness, Dylan regularly opens his studio—a converted mechanic’s warehouse—to his peers, transforming the space as needed to a gallery and burgeoning hub for the area’s growing art crowd. “It’s not a big space, but there’s such a need for this in our town,” he says.

Back in his studio, Dylan selects some recent photographic prints—work that he perceives to be an extension of his main creative passions—namely surfing, skating, and exploring. His goal is always to spark conversation with engaging photography that’s far from throwaway. Even his Instagram tagline is ‘Let’s tell a story worth remembering…’ And shooting on Polaroid is one aspect of this everlasting approach. “What’s fun about doing the whole Polaroid thing is that not only do you have a tangible positive that you can give to the family you just shot, but you also have a negative that you can either enlarge…and it gives it another life—for me, it’s a fun, artistic outlet.”

“There’s no ego and no competition in Ventura. Everyone’s just here because we love to do what we do.”

Thanks, Dylan, for sharing the Ventura lifestyle with us. Follow Dylan’s adventures on his website and Instagram.

FvF have always been drawn to the Californian lifestyle, shaped by the energetic coastline and endless summer days. Together with Visit California we’re proud to follow the creative community who have settled in the Golden State with natural wonders right at their doorstep.

To get to know more locals, head to Sunnyvale in our portrait with Interactive Art Director Stefan Schuster and see the rest of the FvF x Visit California portraits here. Flick through our archive of articles in California as well as our catalog of global surfing stories. For more on Dylan’s Gordon’s adventures scroll on for Chapter Two where he heads inland to the mountains.

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