Surf World Mourns Legendary, Beloved Photographer: Hank Foto
“You were an asshole, but you were our asshole.”
You can donate to Hank’s family Gofundme here.
This week the surf world learned that veteran photographer Hank Foto passed away.
Brian Stephen—better known to the surfing world as Hank Foto—was a fixture of the North Shore, a hard-living, sharp-tongued, frequently hilarious presence who somehow managed to put himself in the right place whenever conditions got serious.
His photographs, especially of Hawaii’s Outer Reefs as well as its premiere spots like Pipe and Waimea, are part of the visual record of modern big wave surfing.
Hank died this week after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 62.
“I just got the news,” wrote Brian Bielmann, Hank’s longtime friend and fellow North Shore photographer and transplant. “Hank has passed away. He’s on the ultimate surf adventure. It was just his time but the world is gonna be a very different place for many of us without Hank. I sent him a text this morning. I said ‘Hank I’m checking up on you’ cause I haven’t been to see him in the hospital for four or five days and he wrote me back and he said, ‘I’m Out’. I thought they were letting him out of the hospital again and I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘where are you?’ and I got no response. Two hours later I heard the news. I realized Hank was calling to tell me he was ready to go. I just didn’t realize what he was saying.”
Born in Newport Beach in 1964, Hank grew up surfing around Southern California, particularly Salt Creek, as the wave became the center of the high performance surfing world.
“I got the name Hank from a couple of boys at Salt Creek,” Hank told Bielmann in an interview with FreeSurf Magazine.
“I grew up, born and raised in California. Kevin Billy actually nicknamed me “Snack Bar Hank” because at 13 years old, I started working at the snack bar in Salt Creek and it kind of stuck with me.”
Hank started shooting photos in the early 80s, and found himself being taken under wing by one of surf photography’s most important figures.
“I met Larry [“Flame”] Moore (former photo editor of Surfing Magazine) down at the beach, and he was a big mentor of mine,” Hank told Bielmann. “He was the one who got me to get my first water housing and taught me everything I knew about photography. I was friends with him until he passed away. He was a great friend of mine.”
Hank’s first published photograph appeared in Surfing in 1984. Within a few years, Hank was full-time as a staff photographer and eventually one of the magazine’s most recognizable shooters. His work during the early-90s focused on some of surfing’s most underground outliers—Shawn Briley, Nathan Fletcher, Christian Fletcher, Josh and Randy Sleigh, the early Pipeline Posse, and made for some of the decade’s most impactful images, not least of which his 1994 Surfing cover reveal of what has become one of surfing’s most instantly recognizable waves: Erik Barton standing in one of the biggest, bluest barrels the surf world had ever seen: Teahupo’o
“Being a photo editor for “Surfing Magazine” was always my dream,” Hank told skate and surf icon Jay Adams in a Juice Magazine interview in 2004. “Growing up in Salt Creek, I was always taking pictures and it was pretty interesting…I just wanted to be in the ocean all the time. I wanted a job that wasn’t like a job, so I became a photographer. I got a job working for Surfing Magazine as the little gopher girl. I learned the ropes of photography and by the time I was 26, I was a full-fledged photographer… Surfing was always there for me. I just had to work my way up the ladder. Now I’m a senior staff photographer and I’m one of the top three or four guys.”
For the last thirty years, Hank’s photography has been largely focused on the North Shore and the particularly chaotic mix of heavy water, borderline crazy characters, remote, feral trips and the unhinged, candid moments before and after the obvious action.
Hank revealed to close friends late last year that he’d been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. For the last few months he’d been in and out of treatment, with close friends and family rallying around him and his family. News spread last week that Hank had been admitted into the hospital and that the prognosis was not looking good.
“He was hurting,” wrote Bielmann. “ His body was beat to hell. I say a prayer for his son Fender and I’m sorry for his loss. There are so many Hank stories out there. We should write a book and just everybody tell their Hank stories. Hank, you were an asshole, but you were our asshole. Love you long time, Hank. We will see you on the other side.”
“We lost a good one in @hankfoto808 yesterday after a battle with cancer,” wrote Kelly Slater. “I met Hank with @patchy_o and the crew at Salt Creek when I was a little kid. He was a kneeboarder then and he worked at the snack bar at the beach so we all called him ‘Snack-bar Hank’. The guys at Creek had a club called SCC (Salt Creek Core) and he was an ever-present figure in the group. I had just turned pro but hadn’t yet signed a contract yet and I had no logos so I only repped SCC stickers for a couple of weeks. One night they threw an SCC house party. Everyone was drinking and partying along and then everyone started diving in the pool from the deep end one after another for about 15-20 mins. Then Hank decides to jump in from the side 90 degrees to everyone else right as I ran and dove headfirst. We connect mid air with my forehead on his temple. I was kinda ko’d for a second and thought I hurt my neck pretty badly underwater so I come up waving for help. I check on whoever it was I hit and it’s Hank blowing bubbles unconscious at the bottom of the pool. The music is loud and nobody is paying attention so I swim down and grab him and get his head above water when everyone starts helping. He’s coughing up water and super concussed but he’s alive. We call the ambulance and by the time they get there Hank is drinking beers again and refuses help before walking face first into a sliding glass door. So we tried again and again to get him to go get checked out but he flat out refuses and continues on with the night. Hank and I laughed about that one so many times over the years. Everyone who knew him has amazing stories and although he never did a book (he did shoot the cover of my first book Pipe Dreams in 2003), apparently he was keen to have a book with stories from all his friends that involve their memories with him. I hope everyone can gather stories and make this a reality and maybe we can create something really great for his son Fender, and all have a big send off for a legend in our world. Peace Brian ‘Hank’ Stephan. It won’t be the same community without you.”
Hank leaves behind his 15-year-old son, Fender. Hank had been unable to work while undergoing treatment. His wife had died in 2018, leaving him as Fender’s primary parent.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help Fender and Hank’s family in this heartbreaking time.
