Ahhh Peter Crawford....one of Hodaddy's favourite subjects.
Crawford was a renowned surf photographer and some would say one of the world’s best lensmen the industry has seen.
Having grown up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches he was also an avid surfer. His body of work spanned over 3 decades and in this time he captured some of the most influential riders in surfing’s history including Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew and Michael Peterson.
The true status of Peter Crawford and his legacy is still being realised both in Australia’s surfing history and around the world. With his sudden passing in Bali, from an apparent spider bite, this colourful flower bloomed short and sweet.
Being a major surfing photographer for both Australian surfing publications and the big US surfing magazines, PC has a library up there with the best in surfing’s archives. His body of work was magnanimous, photographing over one million images in his lifetime.
(Surfer Magazine) Peter Crawford is a legend of surfing, a great surfer who was also an extremely talented and passionate photographer with an immense body of work that is still being retrieved, after his life was cut short in 1999 Indonesia.
To this day, Peter Crawford is still regarded as one of the World’s finest kneeboarders alongside names like George Greenough and Wayne Parkes.
Peter was always in the water and often with a camera housing capturing a unique perspective on film. Crawford lived the surfing lifestyle, based in Dee Why and scoring some heavy waves at his home break, Crawford later found his heart taking him to Indonesia and Bali, and this is where he passed to the other side from a snake bite.
There is mystery and folklore surrounding his mammoth body of photography work and where it all ended up, but we are fortunate that some of it lives on through his son, Justin Crawford. Justin has the talent in his blood and he is one of the younger photographers featured in the SwitchFoot books. Justin and his mates around Dee Why (Sydney) keep the tradition alive, they ride and glide on all sorts of boards and the fin systems that Peter Crawford pioneered are being further developed by this niche crew who still live in the old house in Dee Why.
Peter Crawford’s archives are maintained by Justin Crawford and anyone wishing to help support what Justin is doing should simply drop us a line and buy a signed print, to help keep the legacy alive.
