Behind the Shot
"Authentic" is the word that best describes how Max observed life on the seacoast of New Hampshire. "It has the most anti-LA or Miami vibe possible. Things there are really weather-beaten and beautiful. There's a sense of age to everything that's really cool. I'm born and raised in California, I grew up in a ski resort town, and I've lived in a lot of 'polished' places, and the seacoast of New Hampshire is not a polished place."
Max was permitted to borrow his girlfriend's father's 1975 Jeep 0-5 for the week they visited. "The jeep is her dad's prized possession and it's immaculate. It's all original everything. He drives it, but he takes excellent care of it.
"For me, this image captures how everything felt on the trip. This really captured the feeling, because everything in New Hampshire was in perfect condition; not because people polished it, but because they took care of it.”
Max lives in Newport Beach, California. "It’s like the supercar capital of the world. You literally see four Ferraris a day here on a slow day. I'm not easily impressed by cars, but this is a ·75 CJ-5 Jeep! It's authentic, there's nothing phony about this, and I really thought about how cool this was. It's not because Jeep wanted it to be the coolest but because it was so simple and I wanted to take a 'simple' image to capture this.
"There's a quote: 'Beauty and style are boundless; and it's such a powerful quote. Pavement can be beautiful if you look at it in the right light.
"I'd been driving around this day watching how the light played on the instrument panel. The day was a little overcast and the light was soft with shadows. I couldn't resist pulling over to the side of the highway and capturing the light and shadows. It was so natural and authentic."
