User:Patricktrefz/Patrick Trefz

Patrick Trefz (born December 2nd, 1970) is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. He was born in Düsseldorf, Germany and currently resides in Santa Cruz, California. He is the producer and director of two feature-length surf documentaries: Thread (2007) and Idiosyncrasies (2010). Trefz is known for an honest, gritty style of documentation. As a European-born artist and surfer, he has a unique perspective on new-world localities. He has shot and directed commercial shorts for Jansport, Nike, Nixon, Simple and others, as well as independent shorts such as Bicycle Trip and Jim’s Lines. He has also produced and directed music videos for musicians including Bill Callahan and Undersea Poem.

Patrick Trefz is a longtime senior photographer at SURFER magazine, where he began work in ##TK##. He is also a regular contributor to international publications Big, GQ, Geo, Chronicle Books, The New York Times, The Surfer's Journal and ESPN. He has worked as a photographer for brands like Nixon, Hurley, Quiksilver, Red Bull, Vans, Volcom, Patagonia, Rip Curl and many others.

Exhibitions

 * Bicycle Trip Film Installation, Red Ink Gallery, San Francisco, October 6, 2005
 * Biarritz Book Launch, 2 Ave Reina Victoria, Biarritz, September 16, 2005
 * Cross the Nation, 112 Greene Street, NYC, June 25, 2005
 * Los Angeles Bicycle Film Festival, June 24-25, 2005
 * NYC Bicycle Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, May 12, 2005
 * Wolfgang Bloch & Patrick Trefz, The Surf Gallery, Laguna Beach, California, December 11, 2004-January 13, 2005
 * Moonshine Festival, Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, October 9-10, 2004
 * Santa Cruz Surf Art Project (SSAP), Full Support Gallery, Santa Cruz, California, September 30-October 22, 2004
 * Any Given Wednesday, Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, California, April 10-June 20, 2004
 * Visions of Surf City, Full Support Gallery, Santa Cruz, California, November 1-December 31, 2003
 * Surf Style, Cassius King Gallery, San Diego, California, September 3-October18, 2003
 * The Art & History of Surfing, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, August 16-November 2, 2003
 * Surf Style, 111 Minna, San Francisco, California, July 10-August 23, 2003

Books

 * Thread

Photographer and filmmaker Patrick Trefz spent more than two years wandering country roads, always in search of the best way to the beach. Thread follows Trefz on his travels from the Basque Country to Steinbeck country, from New York City to West African island nations, scaling fences and hunkering down in the dirt to capture his vision of the visual language of surf culture.

The book is a study in juxtaposition, particularly between the man-made and the naturally occurring. Freighters in a harbor, arranged like pieces on a game board, are set against the light ruffle of wind on the water. Wheels and gears, line running through an installation like belts in a motor, the extremity of industrial production, are countered by a man and a wave, two products of natural energies. Seen one way, everything is natural, and the question becomes one of degrees of manipulation. Still, the settings in these pictures suggest duality, differing realms—the road and the beach, the train track and the lineup—each element evoking its own associations. Patterned yet non-linear, Thread takes seemingly disparate subjects and gently ties them into a unified whole, finding commonality in devotion and practice.
 * Santa Cruz Visions of Surf City