Through The Lens Of Ishod Wair

Sitting down with Ishod Wair is a lot like driving with him. You’re go a million miles per hour and cover a lot of ground. In December of last year, we went and spent a day with Ishod for a fast paced deep dive into his everyday essentials from the gym to the streets. We chatted cameras, cars, skating, and the people he keeps closest. All in his first layer of choice: The Icon Sock.

Which one of these cameras was your first?

This is the one that started it all. I have some expired Fuji 400 in it. I really started shooting about a year ago actually. I used to shoot Polaroids and point and shoots 14 years ago. But I never actually knew how to use a camera manually. I kept it all because the physicality of stuff is what I like. I think that film is king, physicality is king. I'll never sell any of the film cameras that I own because it's like a timepiece, just like a car.

Cars do different stuff, just like cameras do different stuff. Oh, this one might have a 4,000 shutter speed, but the other one has a 500 shutter speed and it goes down to 2.4 or 1.4. And then this one is a fixed lens and this lens M mount, blah, blah, blah. There's just so much. And it's design based.

Do you like that part of photography and cameras?

Definitely, I think I just have an eye for design. I love that type of stuff, like car design, cameras, this, that, the third, creating your space and making your space you.
Anything that really grabs me, just like skating, cars…I could talk about it forever and I just research it. Same thing with architecture and interior design. I just kind of go off my own niche and figure out what I like.

So you put the time into your photography?

Yeah, you get out, what you put in. It's the same thing with skating. This is a term that one of my really good friends says all the time: Experience points, or XP points. It's the same thing with anything in life. It's XP. Anything that I'm doing, it's building XP. It's practice. Everything is practice.

Do you remember what originally drew you into cameras?

The first camera camera that I remember noticing was a Hasselblad that Zander Taketomo was using. He was the first real photographer that I ever shot with when I was growing up in Philly. He had a Hasselblad, and I was always very curious about cameras, but I never took the time to learn how to actually get into it. You know what I mean? I'm like, "Yo, what's up with the camera?" He shows me and I look down into it and everything just looks unreal. And I'm just like, "Whoa, that's so cool."

What do you like about taking photos?

It's cool that I can take photos, and then also bring people back in like, on some homie shit. You know? To be able to give my friends and the people that I care about the feeling of like, "Oh yeah, here's this sick photo. Remember this time?"

You need people there to help you out every step of the way. And I always want to help out my homies. I mean, I'm doing the tricks and stuff, but it's like people supporting me is the reason why I can even do what I do and live how I live and this, that, or the third. I understand that.

The team is the dream, and the dream is the team.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

Right now I'm on some urban outlaw type shit. Just take it through the gears and listen to the car, then get it a little bit sideways when the coast is clear. I'm a menace!