With passion comes sacrifice. Ask any athlete, actor, politician or luminary – they’ll tell you. In order to get somewhere in life, to amass some measure of success, they had to endure hardship and countless hours of dedication. These are the LIFERS, the ones trapped in an endless storm of passion that only ends with life itself. In action sports, LIFERS are prominent, having “caught the skate fever” or been “bitten by the surf bug” at an early age and never letting that passion go.
Collodion photography by Matt Alberts.
Matt Alberts is a cross-disciplined LIFER with stakes in skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, and his primary focus, photography. After discovering the wet collodion process through a dissatisfaction with modern digital photography, Alberts was inspired to set out on a journey to document the nation’s LIFERS via this soul-piercing discipline. Thus, the LIFERS project was born; and similarly to an undying passion for board-riding, Alberts and his crew have been dedicated ramblers, scouring the country from coast to coast.
LIFERS project by photographer Matt Alberts and sponsored by Cadillac.
In early 2015, Cadillac hopped on the project as a sponsor, hooking Alberts and his crew up with lavish rides so they could cruise the country in style. Rigged up to the back of the luxury mobiles are classic airstreams that hearken back to the golden age of Route 66 roadtrips. Since starting the LIFERS project, Alberts and his crew have explored back country powder in Colorado, the skate scene of Los Angeles, and many more action sports allegiances along the road.
Modern luxury meets classic roadtrip nostalgia.
The latest leg of the LIFERS tour focussed on the surfing scene of New York and the North East. After making stops in Long Beach and Montauk, the crew headed out to Newport, Rhode Island to meet with the salty, surf-stoked owner of Water Brothers surf shop. Then it was off to New Hampshire to hang with legendary surf photographer Michael Cirelli. And the final stop on the great nor’easter tour was at Maine’s Grain Surfboards – a duo of surf nostalgists making wooden surfboards. All the while Alberts documented the LIFERS they met along the way with his antiquated yet soul-piercing photography.
LIFERS project by photographer Matt Alberts and sponsored by Cadillac.
Learn more about the LIFERS project here.
