Bo Bridges has been touted as “The World’s Most Badass Photographer,” which is a pretty fair assessment when you take a look through his career portfolio. He once hung out of an airplane at 180 MPH to get a shot of Tom Cruise, an image that made up movie posters for the Mission Impossible franchise. He’s shot shark attack reenactments for Shark Week documentaries. And he’s been the man behind the lens during his fair share of memorable big wave moments.
Three years ago, Bridges says an executive from Marvel walked into his Manhattan Beach, California gallery and approached him to say he loved his work. He suggested they collaborate someday and the two built a relationship from there. Bridges then sat on that suggestion for almost two years before an idea finally came to him: He’d put Marvel’s comic book and film superheroes in real-life and action sports scenarios.
“I wanted to originally shoot the actual characters and the stunts I’m used to,” Bridges told The Inertia. “That’s phase two, though, and we’ll work toward that.”
The first Marvel X Bo Bridges collection, “Hidden Heroes,” was announced on Thursday while Bo’s in Minneapolis for the 2018 X-Games and Comic Con 2018 is in San Diego. It’s kind of like a Where’s Waldo-style concept with the comic characters hidden in photos. Bo calls them, “Fun little Easter eggs that make you look twice.” The images are printed on surfboards, skateboards, or even framed in a motorcycle tire. The Out of the Shadows skateboard is being sold for $450 and the Hulk and Spiderman surfboards are $4,925 on Bridges’ gallery website.
“I’m in the barrel trying to get the shot out,” he explains about his photo of The Hulk literally crushing his hometown pier. “It’s hard to get that scenario lined up. Obviously, Hulk has nothing to do with surf but the concept of him being so big and strong is almost like he’s crushing the pier and creating a tsunami or something. And it’s all still true to what I love.”
