A Throwback to a Throwback: 2005 and Rangefinder Magazine

Stop taking life so seriously and just have fun with everything you're doing!
​If you're not smiling for most of your day as a photographer then you're doing something wrong!

​Image copyright Damien Bredberg

by Skip Cohen

Although I shared this throwback many years ago, we live in a time when people take many things too seriously—which fits the quote above, especially in imaging. It's time to bring back the story of "Scooter Man."
This is a throwback that really hits the time machine, taking me back to 2005. I get that you can't please everybody, but the response to this cover was one of the few times I had to deal with screamers in my career. ​

The photographer was Damien Bredberg, and the image won him Editorial Photographer of the Year in Australia in 2004. The fact that his father was the model adds to the fun of the image and backstory.

How many of you could talk your parents into that kind of role? I remember joking around with my Dad when the issue was published. He said he was willing, but not on a scooter. He wanted a Harley!​

​The image and story were a definite staff favorite when it came time to decide on the cover for that issue. It made us all laugh and represented an artist with a great skill set and sense of humor. The issue was published. Within a couple of days, I got my first angry call.

I don't remember his name, but he was from Arkansas and accused me of publishing porn! He screamed at me to cancel his subscription that his granddaughter saw the issue and was embarrassed. Then he hung up on me.

But technology was on my side, and thanks to caller ID, I called him back to get his name and address! I know you should never go head to head with an angry customer, but he'd pushed all my buttons. I was happy to let him go as a reader.
 
A few days later, I received a letter from a woman who also hated the cover. She tore it off the magazine and sent it to me with a note: "May the view from the back of this motorcycle rider be your just reward!" It took us a minute to realize she was referring to the obvious moonshot.

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The voice of reason is inaudible to irrational people.
Mardy Grothe

Image copyright Damien Bredberg

I can only imagine the comments we would have gotten if we had shared this second image I found on the Vanishing Point website from a post in 2012. Click on any of the images above for more of the story about "Scooter Man."
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