Leroy Grannis at Bonni Benrubi

Unknown Surfer, Pipeline, Oahu 1972 by Leroy Grannis

Of all the sports, surfing may have the strongest affinity to photography. Pick up any surfing magazine (or skateboarding, for that matter) and the thing is probably chock full of great photography and might even have a surf photo how-to article. The combination of waves' powerful scale juxtaposed with dinky, but skilled man lends itself to implicit commentary on both our insignificance and our deft control of nature. (It also lends itself to a lot of lazy work, but that's the hazard of dealing with overwhelming subjects.)

Just in time for these hazy-hot-humid days, Bonni Benrubi is showing Leroy Grannis' "Birth of a Culture: 60's and 70's Surf Photography". In his youth, Grannis dabbled in many of surfing's progenitor forms and started shooting in the 60s just as the sport picked up popular attention - well before camera technnology would make waterborne photography remotely easy.

Through Sept. 17 at Bonni Benrubi Gallery
Fuller Building
41 E. 57th St, 13th Flr
(212) 888-6007