The Snowboarder's Journal - frequency 17.4
STOP, LOOK, AND THINK: Marc O’Malley Tells a Good Story
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon, Photos and Captions: Marc O’Malley 2020-01-23 20:01:58
There aren’t many 24-year-olds who can say they’ve shot a national magazine cover, or that they’ve got a darkroom setup in their basement. But in many ways, Marc O’Malley is beyond his years. With a varied spectrum of influences from late humanist photographers to pro skateboarders, Marc has cultivated a style that exhibits his keen eye for fashion, art, action sports and stories worth telling. It’s raw, relatable, captivating—and all his own.
Born and raised in Rutland, MA, Marc started shooting street snowboarding at 17 years old. “I actually started filming first,” he says. “I wasn’t even thinking about taking photos, but all my friends were also filming. I got a VX [video camera] and ended up trading it to my friend for a T2I, this basic, starter Canon camera. Then I just stuck with it.”
Marc linked up with the up-and-coming Cole Navin, Parker Szumowski and Root 9 crew from nearby Worcester as they were filming for their self-titled movie in 2014. He again shot with Cole, Parker and more alongside videographer Jon Stark for Rendered Useless in 2015. That led to Marc’s first published work, which helped him secure a gig at High Cascade Snowboard Camp. “I moved out west after that,” he says. “I began working at camp, doing their social media and shooting photos in the summer. Then I worked in the office there for a year and realized that I really wasn’t about working in the office.”
Marc left High Cascade and gravitated towards freelance work. He linked up with Desiree Melancon and filmed for the 2018 “United Slopes of America” web series and later co-created Fait Accompli (2018), filming and shooting photos for each project—one of which ended up on the cover Snowboarder Magazine. His creativity caught the attention of Thomas Johnson at K2 Snowboarding. “Tom reached out wondering if I wanted to shoot photos for them, and I’ve been doing that since,” Marc says. “[I’m mostly] in the street shooting action and lifestyle stuff”
He’s well-suited for both. Through both digital and film mediums, Marc creates compelling compositions that capture the action and the not-so-mundane moments going down on any given film trip. “Lately I’ve been really inspired by moments that are candid but tell a good story,” Marc says. “For action, I like looking at anything from a surf photo to a mountain bike photo to a fashion photo, just something different, to try and shoot something new. I want to shoot stuff that makes me people stop, and look and think, ‘There’s a lot of thought put into this photo.’”
Marc’s carefully crafted approach helped land his shot of Mark Wilson on the cover of Torment Magazine this winter. Since then his work from a cross-continent trip in North America with Seamus Foster to film for K2 Snowboarding’s Flickering has been widely shared via social media and beyond. You might think a young guy experiencing quick success would have a head about him, but Marc seems relaxed about it all. Over the phone during a quick break from scoping spots in Minnesota with Seamus, Mark and Jonas Harris, Marc put it simply, “I just want to shoot photos that inspire people to do cool shit; to shoot photos that make you want to hang out with your friends and go snowboarding.”
Photo Caption: Cross-processed Fujifilm Velvia shot in Flagstaff, AZ. It’s slide film, but developed the same as you would color-negative film, producing the color shift seen here. Depending on which film stock you use, you’ll get a different tone.
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