Behind the lens since 1975
Jeff Hornbaker started surfing at 13. His first surf photos ran in Surfer magazine in 1975, and by 1979 he was on Surfer's masthead. He moved to Surfing magazine in 1987 and stayed until 1998. Through the '80s and '90s he was among the best surf photographers working.
For more than two decades he shot for Quiksilver and Roxy, in the lineup, underwater and from the air, from Pipeline and Backdoor to G-Land and Tahiti.
Jeff also made films. Strange Desires (1990) follows Martin Potter's run at the 1989 world title. Country Jim and the Suicide Grommet (1991) takes Jim Banks and Nathan Fletcher south of the border. With Don King he made The Hole (1996) and No Destination (1998), five friends aboard the Indies Trader II in the Mentawai Islands with Kelly Slater, Taylor Knox, Chris Malloy, Pat O'Connell and Ross Williams. Globus: The Meaning of Light (2002), made with Albert Falzon, is less a surf movie than a way of seeing.
He founded Third Eye Aquatic, which makes surf goggles, and co-founded Water Rights, a stock photo agency focused on water, with Virginie Miramon. Today the Nalu Film Foundation is preserving his archive.
