Brad Hill Tag

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The fourth and final issue of Union Press is finally complete and now available. Those that aren’t familiar, Union Press is a Canadian BMX newspaper with photos, profiles, stories, and drawings by Brad Hill and Prashant Gopal (myself). After a few hiccups with printing, we’ve finally finished our latest issue, which will also be the last. We’ve put out four issues in the span of two years, and thousands upon thousands of copies in to the hands of riders all over the country. Putting together a paper of this size and scope is not an easy task, but it’s been an incredible learning process the whole time, and a small way to give back to a community and sport that has motivated and inspired us all these years, and all the publications and independent projects that have come before us. While it’s bittersweet to end a print project, shutting it down will allow us to concentrate more energy on our other projects (this website being one of them).

The issue will begin shipping January 2nd, 2014 and be available for free across Canada in better bike shops and is distributed by Ten Pack. Inside you will find a profile on Greg Henry’s Bridgespot, Mike Fiz’s favourite things in Montreal, a joke column from Greg Flag, and a whole lot more from various contributors such as Charlie Coombs, Zach Rampen, Luke Santucci, Charlie Crumlish, Matt Bosco, Riley McMaster, Trent Barker, and Dave Scott. On top of 4 broadsheets full of great photos and content, you’ll also get four fold out posters on the backside from MacNeil, Eclat, BMX Gallery 4130, and BMXFU.

For those that don’t have a reliable bike shop in close distance, or live outside of Canada, you can also order a copy from our online store, which will also come with one of three limited edition stickers. Check out some more photos from some of the spreads below, and look for copies in your local shop soon.

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One of the main creative forces behind the BMXFU empire is Niagra native Brad Hill. A recent west coast transplant, Brad has been compiling a selection of his work on his new site. Along with some of the videos he is well known for, the photographs posted are the real treasures. Brad shoots a lot of handsome medium format scenery shots, some striking riding photos, super chill lifestyle images, and stunning nature snaps. There’s a great variety of mediums and styles that makes his portfolio an outstanding glance.

Peep Brad’s work:
www.BRADHILLWORKS.com

MacNeil‘s Sam Lowe, Taylor Elvy, and Greg Flag took a trip to Vancouver Island last month, and Zach Rampen put together this edit of their time. Bikes, beers, camping, and hatchet throwing. Greg Flag even ends up in a bush. Check out the video above, then head over to their micro site for a gallery of great photos by Brad Hill.

island getaway

This past weekend Brad Hill, or Bobby as he is known, gave me a copy of his new photo book, simply titled Bobby’s Book. Despite sharing his photographs on this site, in the pages Union Press, various BMXFU projects, and the odd magazine publication, he still had an overspill of photographs that deserved to be showcased and shared. He did what few people seem to do nowadays and self published his own full colour zine of photographs of his friends and where he’s from. Each photo steers clear of the all-too-common low fisheye angle exaggeration that is common in BMX photographs. Using a multitude of different analog cameras and films, the images are each laid out with careful consideration to the page’s background and hand written captions are scrawled in marker on scraps of paper. If you wanted to get a physical copy of the book you are unfortunately out of luck, as they are already all gone and spoken for. Despite that, Bobby put up a digital copy that you can flip through, and hopefully it inspires others to shoot more photos and share it with their friends.

Bikes in ohio

“This is the back of The Champ’s car as we drove through Cleveland Ohio. The second photo is a spot in Akron that you might recognize from ALYK videos and in Cult’s TIC. Shot on some expired slide film that Mikaël Cardin sent through.”
– Brad Hill

Akron

Greg - curved nun rail
“Greg Henry switch grinding the curved “nun” rail. A few good rail set-ups at this place but you always get bitched at for riding them by a group of nuns. One time one came out and told us she hoped we got hurt to which someone replied “well I hope you go to Hell.” Bet she didn’t sleep easy that night. This photo was shot on some expired film that Mikaël Cardin sent through.” Brad Hill