There are probably quite a few of us who can say that we were with the tuner scene from the start, and a few more who can say that they've been following the drift scene from the start as well. However, I think it's safe to say that there are only a very small handful of people who can actually claim that one or both of these cultures changed their lives completely. Antonio Alvendia is one of those people. Some of you may not know who he is or heard his name before but it's safe to say that at least 90% of you have seen his awesome photography work-in fact many of his shots have graced the pages of C16ASM in the recent past. Antonio has been shooting cars and drifting for years and decided to put the story behind his career and his photos together in America's first-ever photo-documentary book about drifting. I caught up with Antonio to try to get the story behind the book and behind his history in the scene.
Why don't we start off with you talking a little bit about your start in drifting culture and the industry? When did you discover drifting?
I'm originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I got involved in SCCA and NASA Autocross and road racing events shortly after I started driving. I noticed that the older Filipino guys with the old school Toyota Corollas and Starlets were the fastest ones at autocross events, and to me, their cars definitely looked the coolest.
I became obsessed with AE86s, and would always autocross with my other Bay Area AE86 friends like Calvin Wan and Hiro Sumida. Eventually we started an AE86 crew, The AE86 Driving Club. Almost every weekend, the AE86 Driving Club would meet up in South San Francisco with like 30 other AE86 owners, and then drive the nearby mountain roads. We eventually met other AE86 guys in the mountains, like Alex Pfeiffer, who was the first person I ever met who could actually drift and connect turns. This was the very beginning of the drifting scene for us. There's a lot more to this story, but it would take too long for me to tell it. The rest is in my book.
If you get a copy directly from my website, www.driftingbook.com and we'll even send you a bunch of cool gifts with the book, as thanks from me and my sponsors.
Where has drifting taken you in terms of travel and career?
I've traveled all over the USA to take photos of drifting at the professional and grassroots levels. I've even been lucky enough to travel all over Japan, thanks to my boy Kenta Ogawara. He wrote for Japan's most popular underground drifting magazine, called Battle Magazine, or BM. He chose me as BM's main photographer from the USA, and we worked for BM for three years.
After looking at a bunch of other photographers, NBC Universal chose me to be the special effects car photographer for the drifting sequences of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." I really must thank Stanley Tran, Toshi Hayama, and all the stunt drivers for referring me. Universal told me, "We did our research to find out who consistently shot the best drifting images, and your name kept popping up." So I was really honored to receive that huge compliment, especially from Universal. Stanley Tran from Universal's photo department said that "Most of the design houses that worked on the film chose your photos for the stuff they printed up. Actually, most of the magazines that ran stories about the movie used your photos of the orange RX7."
I also need to thank Ken Miyoshi, the founder of Import Showoff. He chose me to be the official voice of the Drift Showoff Series because I knew all this info about the cars and drivers at the events, and could spit it out off the top of my head.
Where there any rough spots during the creation of the book?
It's a learning process! I'm very thankful to my publisher for giving me this opportunity because every photographer dreams of creating something like this.
Big companies often tell me, "We think what you're trying to make is only going to appeal to the hardcore drifting audience. You have to think about what America's mainstream mass audience is going to like." But my response to that is, if my name is going to be on it, I want to keep it true to drifting, and real drifters. Drifters have their own likes; they have a high BS meter and intolerance for fake stuff. They don't want to be "marketed to."
So when I'm working on a project, I always try to "keep it true" to what I like, because I'm not some disconnected corporate marketing person-I myself am part of the "drifting demographic" that all these companies are trying to reach! I am the core audience! And I think if the "core audience" likes it, then the mainstream newbies will also like it by default. I think more companies should start thinking like that.
Rumor has it that you're addicted to hachi-rokus and negative offset wheels and that you collect them like a sneaker fiend collects Jordans...what's up with that? How many AE86s and sets of wheels do you own?
Haha, well...it's interesting that you compare my negative offset wheels to sneakers. I love both! I'm always telling people, you gotta come correct and rock the right wheels-it's like having fresh kicks for your car! It's like your car's outfit-the wheels make the whole look and personality of the car, and offset is everything.
I don't care how rare or how JDM or how light a wheel is...if the outer lip doesn't come out to the fender, and the tires aren't stretched out, then I'm not feelin' it.
Oh yeah, stretched tires are a must. If you stretch a thinner tire over a wide wheel, it lessens your chance of rubbing because the tire has more fender clearance. And you can lower your car more! And you gotta have fat outer lips on the wheels. That's where offset comes in. In fact, I don't even care to put big brake kits on any of my cars because it lessens your ability to rock deep, offset, super fat-lip wheels.
Ok ,but back to your question, I have two TE27s (1972 and 1973) and like five AE86s; four in LA, and I keep one at Ebisu Circuit in Japan, thanks to my good friend Kumakubo, the leader of Team Orange.
Okay, and how many wheels do I own?
Dude, I don't even know. A lot.
When I first saw you on the scene, I thought you were just a photographer, but after checking out your MySpace it seems like you got a whole fashion thing going on too. Tell us a little about your clothing line.
I rock the Cipher Garage sticker on all the cars in my collection. The clothes you wear are a reflection of your personal style, just like your car is. Since I don't feel like the stuff I see at malls represents what I'm about, Cipher Garage clothing was created for people who love Japanese classic cars, VIP style cars and 86 LIFE, which is a term I coined to describe the lifestyle that we lead-a lifestyle which was built around the cars and drifting culture that we are so passionate about.
At the same time, I grew up around hip-hop culture, so I love graffiti art, underground mixtapes, customized sneakers and street fashion. So Cipher Garage's clothing line takes inspiration from everything I love about AE86s, drifting culture and 1970s/1980s "Showa" era Japanese muscle cars: things like negative offset wheels, drift team "tomodachi" stickers, stretched tires, vintage steering wheels and carburetors.
I try to incorporate these vintage Japanese car culture icons and blend it with cool colorways and graphics to match my sneakers, hats and Kangols. Man, Kangol is my favorite brand of hat. I collect Kangols too.
What's in the future for Cipher Media Group? When I talked to you the other day you said you have a lot of projects in the works-anything you can tell us about?
I was recently contracted to do a nationwide drifting calendar which will be in all the bookstores and malls next year, and also contracted to shoot and design the official Formula D trading cards, which we'll be seeing soon.
Oh, and I just began licensing my photos for downloading to cell phones! Go to www.autofonimages.com and get some cool backgrounds! We're constantly adding more photos and categories of pics.
Last but not least, any shout outs? Thanks?
I want to thank my little brother David, and everyone who has inspired me in some way, or supported CMG and Cipher Garage! Thank you to everyone who bought my book, and helped me promote drifting! Especially Steve Starr, my boys at Belle 1, Kevin & Ben from Drift.com, Kenta Ogawara, Jerry Tsai, Jay Yoshida, Tobin Honda, Cindy Lam, Slide America, EverythingDrift.com, Craig Louderback, Erik, Ainsley, Stan Tran, Jose Gonzalez, Formula D, J-rod, Eric Knappenberger, Zach Siglow, all my book's promotional partners, and of course, everyone at C16ASM! |