Mark Greeley: Gas Monkey Photo Challenge Crowns First-Ever Champion!

Photo Challenge, Gas Monkey, Fast N Loud, Richard Rawlings
^The Winning Shot^

Name: Jimmy Ban
Instagram: @jam9k
Website: www.jimmyban.com
Location: Los Angeles, California

Notable Clients: So far the majority of my clients have been private owners & collectors, but a few brands I’ve worked with are VanTech Motorcycles, Charlie’s Place Motorcycles, Riot Cycles, Motorcycle Classics Magazine, Bike Exif, Rusnak Auto Group.

Years Shooting: In general, 35 years. Automotive photography, 1.5 years.

Jimmy Ban In His Own Words:

I was born in a barn. No joke. A few years later I discovered that I liked cameras and it’s stuck with me ever since. I loved photographing people, landscapes, buildings, dogs, rocks, anything, everything, but I’ve never really photographed automobiles. Fast forward to the Summer of 2016, while randomly using my friends motorcycle to try a new lighting technique, boom, that’s when I literally saw the machine on wheels in a completely new light. I was fascinated by this machine – the lines, the textures, the shapes, the colors, and all the other little details on it. That bike was beautiful. It was unique. I mean nothing compares to looking at this machine in person, but looking at an image allowed me all the time I wanted to spend on to examine the bike, in full, just like when I had my Countach and Testarossa posters on my wall back in my childhood days.

Immediately I was obsessed. I needed to shoot more. After wondering how I could get access to some more beautiful rides, I eventually came up with the idea of going to car and motorcycle events in hopes to find more rides to shoot. And here in Southern California I discovered that there’s multiple events happening throughout the L.A. area on pretty much every day, all year long.

And so I would just show up to these events, and right in the middle of a bunch of people, with my knee pads on, I would set up my tripod and camera, and I would get my flash out, and I would just patiently wait until i had a clear frame for a few minutes, and shoot. The more motorcycles and cars I shot, the more people I met, and that’s when I started to realize that the builders and owners of these machines are just as fascinating. Every single person is just as unique as their rides, coming from all different backgrounds, whether it be a postal worker, a musician, a CEO, a fireman – all with different reasons and stories of their connection with the automobile… It was amazing.
In this journey that has been going on for about a year and half now, I’ve photographed hundreds of different vehicles, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

So did I know much about motorcycles and cars before all this? Nope. Actually, I didn’t really know shit about Countaches and Testarossas. But I’m slowly learning, and I can feel my growing interest in the automobile culture getting stronger and I’m finding myself scouring craigslist and eBay listings, wondering if this ride, or that ride, is going to be my next ride. BTW, I currently drive a damn Prius named “Furiosa.” She’s a 2012, and I get 45 MPGs because I have a heavy foot.

Anyway, although I still try to go to car events every week, I don’t really need to anymore as I’ve been getting a lot of people reaching out to me and hiring me to shoot their rides. So, a few months ago I have started doing this full time and it has been an absolute blast. So if anyone wants their ride shot, give me a hollar. Yes I can travel.

Oh yeah – did I mention that I’m also a filmmaker? Well, I’m a filmmaker, and I’m in the middle of making a documentary film about car culture, because you know, it’s pretty awesome. The first trailer should be coming out very soon, so stay tuned.