Photographer Atiba Jefferson’s craft is built both from an obsession with the city’s many scenes and a lifelong love for Canon’s cameras and lenses
Canon “Explorer of Light” Atiba Jefferson is a legendary skateboard, sports and portrait photographer with an infectious passion for both his craft and subject matter. A longtime Angeleno, his career has included a formative stint as an L.A. Lakers assistant staff photographer, celebrity portraiture, and prestigious commercial clients like Vans, Supreme, Netflix, Ford, Pepsi and, of course, Canon.
“I feel such a strong bond with L.A. through the basketball here … and also because skateboarding has had me explore the city from every freeway exit,” said Jefferson, chatting from his Lake Hollywood home of 20 years. “I was able to experience so many cultures moving here and that makes everything I do so much more colorful.”
Skateboarding & Spider-Man
Jefferson grew up in Colorado before moving to Southern California in 1995. His first flicker of interest in photography came from comic book character Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, a freelance photographer who moonlighted as a superhero. But without a camera in his household, he first became immersed in punk rock and skateboarding before a high school photography class revealed a curiosity that was both equal – and complementary – to his existing interests.
“I always credit skateboard magazines and their photos in the eighties,” Jefferson recalled. “I didn’t realize it was really planting a seed for me by cutting out those pictures and hanging them up on my wall and really being mesmerized by them.”
From his first darkroom experiences in junior year, he was hooked. As with skateboarding, mastering film photography required what he calls an addiction to failure: repeatedly falling while skating or flubbing with a camera, yet constantly coming back for more. And one of the cameras provided for those life-changing high school lessons was a Canon Snappy Q, a 1989 point-and-shoot that would spark Jefferson’s ongoing loyalty to Canon products.
Jefferson went on to work for all the major skateboard publications, his photos helping to not only convey a sport but also the subculture around it. He parlayed his burgeoning reputation into three years as an assistant to Lakers team photographer Andrew Bernstein during the Shaq and Kobe era, shooting more SLAM magazine covers than any other photographer.
“It’s a millisecond between the photo being great and being terrible, so I have to pre-visualize that moment before it even happened,” Jefferson explained. “[Bernstein] taught me, hey, when the dunk happens, point your camera at the bench, because that’s when the team is going to celebrate … He taught me a lot about storytelling.”
Jefferson applies the same approach to concert photography, attending multiple shows on the same tour to learn when a certain move or moment is imminent. Even in the contrastingly controlled setting of a portrait studio, he works famously fast, capturing his celebrity subjects just as they appear before him rather than posing or directing them.
The throughline of what Jefferson calls the yin and yang of his work – from the unscripted semi-chaos of sports to the quiet calm of portraiture – is a sheer fascination with his subjects. Because, for all of his lust for learning, decades of hands-on experience, and state-of-the-art Canon gear, it’s his joy in photographing athletes and musicians whom he deeply respects that seeps into his images and sets them apart.
“If you look at my photography, it’s not about shooting the coolest model,” he noted. “It’s about me shooting anything that I am into, whether it’s music, sports or skateboarding … and I’m proud of that.”
Creating With Canon
Since 1995, long before he became a brand ambassador for the company, Jefferson has been exclusively using Canon equipment. Coming from a maverick counterculture like skateboarding, he ranks recognition as an Explorer of Light alongside his proudest career achievements.
“In skateboarding, none of us has ever been an ambassador for a camera company,” he said. “So, flowers to Canon for believing and seeing a value in me and in skateboarding … they’re always exploring new things and as an Explorer of Light it’s been really great to be part of that process.”
Jefferson uses Canon’s EOS R3 and R5 mirrorless cameras for both action photography and studio portraiture. And he almost always has a compact Canon PowerShot G7 X point-and-shoot in his pocket on which he’ll capture 40 to 50 frames on any given day. Canon’s EF 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is a staple of his action photography, while their EF 8-15mm f/4L fisheye is what Jefferson calls his “stock skateboarding lens,” enabling eye-catching shots that emphasize movement without elongating the subject.
“It’s a millisecond between the photo being great and being terrible, so I have to pre-visualize that moment.”
— Atiba Jefferson (on capturing photos during chaotic movement)
Canon’s RF 50mm F1.2 L USM lens has also become a significant tool in Jefferson’s signature aesthetic. “It’s really a combination of that low depth-of-field look, and the eye-detection autofocus in R5s and R3s,” he explained. “Before, when I shot with such a shallow depth of field, it was hard to get things in focus. Now, with that eye detection, it’s super-fast and razor sharp.”
Canon’s famously user-friendly interface was a factor for Jefferson from the get-go. He points out that the brand also offers outstanding quality for photographers of all levels and budgets, with one of his best LeBron James dunk photos even being taken on a simple Canon point-and-shoot. For anyone looking to get serious about photography for the first time, Jefferson recommends Canon’s surprisingly affordable full-frame, 24.2-megapixel mirrorless EOS R8.
“With this camera, you will shoot pictures like I shoot,” he said. “There isn’t a big difference in what I use, and the R8 for the price is just unbelievable – and that’s including great video.”
You’ve probably already seen Jefferson’s work on magazine covers, in advertisements, and even recreated as street murals. And if you live in L.A., you may well see the man himself. Because, for all of his success and fame, you’re as likely to spot Atiba Jefferson shooting skaters in an Eastside schoolyard, bobbing his head at an Echo Park punk show, seated courtside at a game or jetting off from LAX for yet another global assignment.
-Paul Rogers
