LeRoy Grannis, Birth of a Culture : '60s and '70s Surf Photography

This work captures the perfect wave: tapping into the archives of America's most important surf photographer of the '60s and '70s.

At a time when surfing is more popular than ever, it's fitting to look back at the years that brought the sport into the mainstream.

Developed by Hawaiian islanders over five centuries ago, surfing began to peak on the mainland in the 1950s, taking America - and the world - by storm.

Surfing became not just a sport, but a way of life, and the culture that surrounded it was admired and exported across the globe.

One of the key image-makers from that period is LeRoy Grannis, a surfer since 1931, who began photographing the scene in California and Hawaii in the longboard Gidget era of the early 1960s.

This collection, drawn from Grannis's personal archives, showcases an impressive selection of surf photographs - from the bliss of catching the perfect wave at San Onofre to dramatic wipeouts at Oahu's famed North Shore.

An innovator in the field, Grannis suction-cupped a waterproof box to his board, enabling him to change film in the water and stay closer to the action than other photographers of the time. Equally notable is his work covering an emerging surf lifestyle, from "surfer stomps" and hoards of fans at surf contests to board-laden woody station wagons along the Pacific Coast Highway.

It is in these iconic images that a sport still in its adolescence embodied the free-spirited nature of an era - a time before shortboards and celebrity endorsements, when surfing was at its bronzed best.

Collector's edition is limited to 1000 copies, numbered and signed by LeRoy Grannis.

The photographer: LeRoy Grannis's initial foray into surfing began at age 14 with a six-foot slab of pine, but it wasn't until the age of 42 that he picked up a camera and made a career out of it.

Under doctor's orders to take up a hobby, Grannis built a darkroom in his garage and began shooting surfers at Hermosa Beach, selling prints for a buck apiece.

His photos soon started appearing in many of the burgeoning surf magazines, and "Photo: Grannis" quickly became a hallmark of the California surf scene of the 1960s.

Grannis is considered one of the most important documentarians of the sport, and was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1966.