I've been photographing Carson Storch since he was a young kid on a mountain bike. Over the years, we've grown up shooting together, traveling around the world, and working on all kinds of projects. So when Red Bull brought me in for a project celebrating the 25th anniversary of Red Bull Rampage, it was a pretty cool opportunity to work together again.
The project brought Rampage history to an unexpected place: the last Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon.
To celebrate 25 years of Rampage, Red Bull created a limited-edition VHS release featuring footage from the very first event. The idea was to build a display inside Blockbuster that brought the anniversary to life, complete with a life-size cutout of Carson and a stand designed to look like a scene straight out of Rampage.
My part started with photographing Carson for the display. Red Bull then worked with a graphic designer who specializes in this kind of installation, using my photograph as the foundation and building out the rest of the display with the surrounding dirt, other riders, and graphic elements. The finished piece put Carson and his bike right in the middle of the action.
Once everything was installed, I headed into the store to photograph the display in its new home and capture some behind-the-scenes content for social media. I also shot an iPhone video walking through the store, taking in the installation alongside the shelves of VHS tapes and all the familiar Blockbuster details.
There's something fitting about celebrating 25 years of Rampage with a VHS release. It's a throwback to a different era of action sports, when watching an event on tape was part of how you experienced it. Putting that history inside the last Blockbuster made the whole thing that much more fun.
It's always good to work with Carson, especially on a project that brings a little history into the mix. From photographing him as a young rider to seeing his image become part of a life-size display celebrating one of mountain biking's biggest events, this one was a fun project to be part of.
