flow, style and tricks on all wheel sizes
Published: 22/09/12
Saturday Snaps with
Erik Hölperl
Who is Erik Hölperl
I am a 24 year old guy who likes to ride bikes, take photos and make videos.
Years shooting:
I started in 2007 with a small point and shoot camera, and in September 2008 I bought my first DSLR.
What got you into taking photos?
There was no real reason, I just tried to capture some moments and after a while I realised that I really enjoyed photography so I took it more seriously.
First photography related memory:
I took a picture of my mum on holiday when I was nine years old.
Best photography experience:
There are so many. Riding bikes and taking photos brings you to crazy places pretty much every time you go out.
Worst photography experience:
I climbed on top of an empty high rise building to shoot Flatland BMX photos which caused a massive police/fire department operation. (see photos below for full story).
Advice for taking a great photo:
Think outside the box.
Three favourite photographers:
Walter Pieringer, Szymon Nieborak, Ian Hylands (of course there are many more).
Photography highlight/achievement:
Being able to make a living out of my work and being accepted to study at the Bauhaus university in Weimar, Germany.
Why do you take photos?
People often overlook things that are right in front of them because they look too far away. I like to share what I discover and open the eyes of the people who don’t see the small things. This is my biggest motivation in photography.
Top photos:
Rider: Mark Lochmann
I think this could be my favourite BMX shot so far and the story behind this one is just crazy. We went up this abandoned Skyscraper to do a photo shoot and film some behind the scenes footage for a video contest.
Mid shooting we heard at least ten cars with sirens going down the street but we never expected that it was because of us. Ten minutes later three black clothed police officers arrived on the roof and they were pissed because they had to walk 20 stories up to get to us. When we arrived on the ground there was pretty much every firefighter truck you could find in our city and at least 30 firemen and policemen. Somebody phoned to say that there were people on the roof who wanted to commit suicide and they took it seriously. Haha. The shots were totally worth it though.
Rider: Erik Hölperl
We made a little journey to Berlin to gather some inspiration for a new project. It was so much fun that we stayed in the park until the very last minute. Before we left I saw an open door and wanted to do a long lens shot through it. Last time I went to this indoor skatepark I hit the roof with my shoulder so this time I did an opposite air over the transfer.
I am not 100% happy with the one foot table but I loved the picture and was too exhausted to do better.
Rider: Erik Hölperl
In june 2011 I had an ACL rupture in my right knee which blew my whole year. With a lot of training I was able to ride from September to October until I had my surgery in December.
This shot was taken a few days before surgery. I wanted to do as much as possible before that so I went to my local forest. Nobody else wanted to ride because it was pretty cold and wet outside, so there was no other option then to shoot some self counter shots. The sun is so weak at this time of the year that you can shoot right at it without losing the rider.
Rider: Nico Scholze
Despite this photo being a standard snapshot Nico made it special with this crazy Cordova Flip. I was filming for LXS but had all the shots I needed so I put my camera in photo mode and took one photo of Nico going real crazy.
Rider: Chris Nunn
This was both my first attempt at shooting with two flashes and my first POD on Pinkbike so naturally I am stoked with this photo. I shot this photo at our local ghetto spot.
Chris is a crazy rider who despite having ridden pretty much every cool spot in the world, said that this is one of his favourite spots.
Rider: Alex Teschner
This is a rather old shot from 2009. We were doing a show for a local bike shop and in-between the shows we found this really cool bank and started to shred it. In this photo the bank is out of view so it looks like he is coming out of nowhere.
Rider: Jens Staudt
It was the first time that they allowed bikes on this old fortress and it was so cool to see the guys ride through this castle.
Last year was a year full of problems but still one of the best so far. I damaged my knee in June and was not realy able to ride through summer. The weather was awful, pretty much every planed shooting got rained out. But I still managed to get some clips an this is it.
I love riding my small mountain bike. It's amazing that you can do so much with one bicycle.
I wanted to make a short film that shows this. Through the video no part was changed.
just one brake, skatepark tyres and 80mm of travel in the front, thats all you need.