It’s 2022 and 19-year-old Hayden Garfield is being stuffed into the again seat of a blacked-out SUV rocketing by means of Large Sur, nursing an odd lump on his shin.
The Santa Barbara teenager wasn’t being kidnapped, per se, however was filming the Tan Group (Ivy Miller, Ian Crane, Noah Wegrich, and Eithan Osborne) for Stab Freeway California.
Someplace in between browsing bare in San Francisco, smoking dreadlocks, trolling tech bros, and being snuck into Irish pubs, Hayden requested his friends, “Hey guys, does this bump look regular?”
That was the top of it, Hayden thought. He simply chalked it as much as a skate harm and shelved it again of thoughts. Nevertheless, removed from going away, the bump seemed “weirder” by the day. Finally, Hayden advised his dad and mom and obtained it checked out “simply in case” (Hayden’s mother is a most cancers survivor herself).
They took X-rays and the docs deemed it “completely benign”. “The docs mentioned every part is completely high-quality, it’s regular, you’ll be able to depart if there if it’s not inflicting you any ache and also you’re nonetheless tremendous younger, there’s no level in doing surgical procedure if it’s not bothering you” Hayden recollects. “Earlier than I left although the physician talked about that there’s the slimmest probability, like 0.0001% probability that it’s the unhealthy one, however there’s solely been like 100 circumstances ever and it doesn’t seem like that one.”
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Earlier than, throughout, and after these preliminary physician visits although, Hayden was within the midst of 1 lengthy “huge break” into pictures, he explains to me on a video name in his small however tidy Santa Barbara residence with prints, outdated cameras, and books strewn in regards to the partitions behind him.
“In highschool, I labored at Channel Islands and someday Morgan Maassen got here in and I requested if I might interview him for a faculty venture I used to be already doing on him particularly [laughs],” Hayden mentioned. “He gave me a faux cellphone quantity, joked round, however then in the end mentioned he’d come to the store and do it in individual. From there he turned my first mentor and now my shut buddy.”
Hayden quickly discovered one other mentor by means of that very same kind of entrepreneurial courtship. “Then, just a little later you guys [Stab] launched an article on how one can make your first million as a photographer with Ryan Miller and I simply stored rereading it and rereading it,” Hayden says. “I’m like ‘who’s this Ryan man?’, he posts pics of himself in Speedos [laughs] and has carried out so many wonderful shoots for magazines and types. Since I felt so new to the surf world, I despatched him a DM on Instagram and requested him what his one piece of recommendation could be to a brand new photographer.”
@Badboyryry hit again, despatched Hayden his quantity, and mentioned, “Alright grom, textual content me.”
“Our friendship simply got here organically from there. I requested questions that I believed he’d get pleasure from responding to and never be like, ‘Fuck off, child,’” Hayden says. “Then someday in the course of the 2021/2022 winter once I was in Hawaii, Ryan referred to as me out of the blue and simply mentioned, ‘Grom, you need to go Portugal subsequent week for a shoot?’” Hayden defined. “I simply mentioned sure, advised him I used to be on the Marshalls’ home [as in Jake Marshall], and he mentioned he’d be there in two minutes. We obtained a poke bowl, he defined the job, and ended up paying for my flight and the entire thing and despatched me Portugal that subsequent week. I needed to shoot portraits of Filipe Toledo someday and I simply so scared to go as much as him and stick a digital camera in his face. Ryan calls me and mentioned, ‘Fucking go as much as him and stick the digital camera in his face.’ I used to be beginning within the deep finish,” he laughs.
From there Hayden, freshly graduated from highschool, turned Ryan’s go-to apprentice. Ryan taught Hayden the “self-discipline of pictures”, Hayden explains. “I discovered how one can divulge heart’s contents to being uncomfortable and placing cameras in peoples’ faces and how one can really edit pictures for a venture. However I largely discovered how one can simply grind and be part of the craziest work ethic I’ve ever skilled in my whole life.”
From Portugal, Hayden traveled to Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, France, and England for various gigs. At simply 20, Hayden had taken a chance on pictures and it was starting to pay dividends — till that very same little bump that he found on Stab Freeway reared its ugly little head once more.
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“We ended up monitoring the lump for 2 years and by the top of the 2 years it began wanting just a little funky and had grown larger,” Hayden says. “I obtained it eliminated and the physician (who’s actually cool) mentioned, ‘Dude, I wager my home and my automobile that this isn’t bone most cancers, however be ready for an additional surgical procedure subsequent week, we don’t need to scare you, however be ready.”
Then, per week handed and Hayden sat at residence, nervously ready for his cellphone to ring. “The physician referred to as me and mentioned that it was the unhealthy one, the bone most cancers, the tremendous uncommon one. It’s referred to as Adamantinoma and it’s so uncommon that chemotherapy and radiation don’t work on it but. The one choice was to take away that tumor from the bone, which means I might both take out three-quarters of the bone and let it heal or take out the whole chunk of bone, which might give it one of the best probability of the most cancers not coming again. I figured go huge or go residence, and we took out the whole factor. They minimize 4 inches of my shin bone out and changed it with a cadaver bone and a few plates.”
Worse but, Hayds obtained no home or automobile per the physician’s wager.
Hayden was in a position to get one of the best assist potential, partly because of a GoFundMe that his mother arrange for him whereas he was asleep in surgical procedure. Hayden was adamant that he wished to maintain this personal and never draw the eye, however mother knew higher. “We met the fundraising purpose and I obtained flooded with optimistic messages from buddies, household, and even well-known folks i’ve by no means met earlier than [laughs]. That assist is what helped me keep optimistic and pace up my restoration I feel,” Hayden says.
The largest fear was that the most cancers would have unfold to his lungs already, so the docs did quite a few CT scans and injected him with radioactive dye to see whether or not most cancers cells would nonetheless mild up within the physique after the cancerous tumor and adjoining bone was faraway from his physique.
“Each couple of months I’d return to the physician to see if the most cancers got here again and to verify whether or not the bone was rising again or not. Fortunately, there was no most cancers anyplace in my physique, however no therapeutic was happening, and the bone wouldn’t develop again. They requested if I wished to do one other surgical procedure and I made a decision to not and obtained tremendous into hyperbaric chambers, acupuncture, crimson mild remedy, and a bunch of loopy, ‘various’ remedies. On the sixth month mark, it lastly started therapeutic.”
It’s now been 9 months since his analysis, and Hayden is now in a position to stroll and even confirmed me his trusty cane by means of the laptop computer digital camera. He’s anticipated to make a full restoration and is again to capturing (he simply did jobs with Captain Fin and Volcom final week). They’ll monitor the bone over the following 5 years earlier than they deem him good-to-go ceaselessly. “It’s gonna in all probability be a trouble to be out on a visit and be like, ‘Sorry guys I gotta head again for my scans now,’” Hayden laughs.
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It’s by no means straightforward asking an individual what it feels wish to virtually die.
However Hayden was gracious about it, “In the course of the occasion, I used to be making an attempt to be so continually optimistic and optimistic that I didn’t contemplate the truth that I might die. I simply tried to be pleased and keep entertained. However I nonetheless really feel tempted to go down the darkish rabbit gap and I’m nonetheless scared that the most cancers will come again, that fear is at all times there. However I feel for me, not enjoying the sufferer half and controlling the issues that have been in my management have been the important thing. Attempting to be persistently optimistic helped me throughout these moments once I thought, ‘Am I actually going to die or am I gonna be high-quality?’ As a result of, to be utterly sincere, I was scared, I used to be fucking terrified.”
“I really feel like I’ve a second probability,” Hayden says. “As scary and horrible because it was, I’m grateful for it too as a result of I discovered a lot about myself and gained perspective I by no means would’ve gotten with out this.”
Earlier than we hung up, I needed to ask him for some recommendation for his fellow up-and-coming Gen Z and even Gen Alpha photographers.
“The largest factor is simply discovering good mentors,” says Hayden. “But it surely’s gotta be natural, not compelled. So it’s form of a bizarre factor, you’re changing into true buddies with somebody however they’re additionally your mentor, they’re serving to you in your profession.”
Hayden additionally talked about the oft-overlooked artwork of enhancing. “Two folks standing proper subsequent to one another might have very totally different pictures relying on their digital camera, their lens and the way they edit. All of us have a distinct type. Pictures are totally different than different mediums as a result of they’re open-ended, the story is kind of as much as the viewer. I feel it’s my job to actually ‘create’ a photograph, put my very own contact on it, and convey no matter feelings I used to be feeling at the moment.”
I then introduced up cash, the Achilles’ Heel of (virtually) each surf photographer. “Surf pictures shouldn’t be going to be the only real revenue of my future. I don’t actually consider myself as a surf photographer. I hope to be a kind of high-quality artist or one thing. I don’t suppose being a surf photographer is unattainable, it simply appears scarce proper now to discover a gig the place you’re simply capturing for an enormous surf model and making an enormous revenue. That mannequin simply doesn’t make sense anymore. I really like browsing, however I need to be a photographer, not only a surf photographer.”
“One factor I’ve discovered is to simply be affected person. That’s the half that children like me get frightened of. Like what in case you put one thing on the market and it will get no consideration and folks suppose you suck. However, that very same photograph might be nice 4 years from now, it’d simply be the mistaken time. I simply had three orders for prints immediately for an outdated photograph out of nowhere. I feel it simply takes time for pictures to repay.”
Hayden mentioned his focus now’s on working and sustaining his well being — taking the precise dietary supplements and nutritional vitamins, maintaining a healthy diet, exercising, and being optimistic mentally. He mentioned overcoming the psychological well being facet has been the toughest however the previous few weeks he’s felt higher than he ever has.
And, who is aware of, with one other iteration of Stab Freeway coming this Fall, he may be getting one other name from us, this time sans-lump.
You may take a look at Hayden’s work at his web site right here and attain out to him on his Instagram right here.
