Click Bait: Compelling Cannabis Photography

During the dark ages of cannabis prohibition and especially before the
internet, it could prove challenging to simply find a photograph of your
favorite plant — particularly if you didn’t want to settle for looking at a
stack of bricked-up weed piled in front of the cops who had just
confiscated it.

Pioneers in the cannabis photography field included the OGs at High Times,
which was founded in 1974, and first-generation cannabis cultivation
writers like Ed Rosenthal and Jorge Cervantes. But these photos tended to
be either instructional, technical shots meant to help underground growers
better ply their trade or zoomed-in close-ups meant to reveal every
anatomical detail of the world’s most delicious looking botanical specimens.

Nowadays, however, as legalization spreads, everyone’s taking pictures of
everything and cannabis photography suddenly feels like a crowded field.
So, in order to focus in on some of the scene’s emerging trends and reflect
on what they show about the rapid evolution of cannabis culture, we decided
to profile four of today’s leading cannabis photographers. Each approaches
the art and science of their craft a little differently, but all produce
striking images that portray the cannabis plant in a properly positive
light — paving the way for a new era of social and legal acceptance in a
society increasingly willing and able to see cannabis as a beautiful flower.
Kristen Angelo

@apotfarmersdaughter

A native of Washington state’s picturesque Vashon Island, Kristen Angelo
proudly refers to herself as the “daughter of a pot farmer.” Raised in an
idyllic world of small-scale cannabis home-growers and secretive guerrilla
patches out in the woods, Angelo had her world shattered as a teenager in
the late 1990s when, in her words, her family “became victims of the drug
war, ending with a mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for my father
for what detectives considered ‘the most sophisticated growing operation’
they’d seen in nearly a decade.”

Twenty years later, Angelo sees her photography as an act of defiance
against the drug war. Her goal is to deliver an authentic portrayal of her
subjects, by “documenting cannabis and the humanity behind it with an
honest and insightful visual narrative,” all in hopes of using her unique
eye for documentary-style photography to help “dismantle preconceived
notions and mainstream stereotypes lingering around cannabis culture.” Her
work has been featured in a wide range of media outlets, including Cannabis
Now, and even in the bestselling book “The Cannabis Grow Bible: The
Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medicinal Use.”
In 2016, her photos were included in an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of
California called Altered State: Marijuana in California, the first-ever
major museum exhibition in the U.S. focused on cannabis.

Shot at Tahoma Growers.

Shot at Cascade Gnome Farms.

Roaches in an Altoids tin.

Shot at Suspended Brands.
Justin Cannabis

According to Justin Cannabis, one of the industry’s go-to commercial
photographers, the roots of his art began to take hold during his mellow
upbringing in Northern California. From a young age, he’d always loved
skateboarding — both riding himself and the culture that surrounds it — and
so he began by taking photos of his immediate surroundings for fun. Later,
combined with his pursuit of technical prowess, this passion lead to a
decade of work for Santa Cruz Skateboards, a leading board manufacturer and
lifestyle brand. That gig showed him how he could turn a hobby into a
career, and he even got to produce a few cannabis-focused images and
products that became a hit with herbal-minded skateboarders.

From there, Cannabis made the leap to photographing marijuana itself as
well as the lifestyle around it, publishing countless covers at High Times,
including many iconic images of California’s hottest new strains, long
before the rest of the country ever had a taste. Best known for using flash
and color filters to create incredibly vibrant studio images, he’s produced
centerfold spreads that have graced innumerable walls to be salivated over
by those who only wish they could smoke such fine flowers. He has also
contributed to books and calendars and even branched out into field work,
traveling all over the world to document cannabis gardens and grow ops.

Strain: Alien OG

Cover of High Times’ hydro issue.

Professional skateboarder Dave Gravette.

Another High Times cover of a dab rig.
Bruce Wolf

What happens when a food stylist marries a photographer and they both love
cannabis? Well, if you’re Laurie Wolf and Bruce Wolf, you join forces to
produce some of the classiest and most mouth-watering edibles photography
available on the planet. Dubbed “The Martha Stewart of Weed” by none other
than the New Yorker, Laurie has since made a name for herself as the author
of four cannabis books — “HERB,” Cooking with Cannabis,” “Marijuana
Edibles,” and “The Medical Marijuana Dispensary” — while contributing
infused recipes to Cannabis Now and other leading media companies.

All of which she’s accomplished while working hand-in-hand with her husband
Bruce, who uses his long background in commercial and art photography to
capture all of her cannabis-infused culinary creations in a way that makes
them look both approachable and awe-inspiring. Edibles have a way of
helping cannabis bridge cultural divides and erase social stigmas (after
all, *everybody* likes to eat), and Bruce’s loving depictions of his wife’s
artfully arranged food actively reinforce the idea that cannabis is a
pleasure and a blessing meant to be shared.

Cover photo for Cannabis Now issue 14.

Straining the oils from cooked cannabis with a cheesecloth during the
making of cannabutter.

The final product of a cannabis tea recipe.

The home kitchen of Laurie & Maryjane.
Sean Moore, a.k.a. Dankshire

@dankshire_

Master of a niche within a niche, Moore specializes in super close-up
photos of cannabis extracts in their most granular detail, capturing the
alien landscapes and strange worlds of sugars, shatters, sauces and slabs.
Self-taught and shooting with a DSLR and macro lens, Moore came up through
the cannabis scene in Washington state, working for extract artists,
friendly growers and dispensary operators — first sharing his work on
Instagram before catching the eye of larger magazines and media outlets.

With an insider’s view of the world’s most cutting-edge concentrates, Moore
produces supremely detailed, bright and clear photos of translucent golden
and amber extracts, zooming in on mouthwatering globs of errl dripping
right off a dabber, or scoops of sugar that look like raw honey. His
biggest challenges involve keeping microscopic particles of dust and hair
away from these sticky substances, since a tiny speck of dirt or an errant
fingerprint can ruin an otherwise lovely shot when viewed through such a
magnified perspective.

Showcasing the beauty of the cannabis plant and preserving the work of an
emerging class of psychedelic alchemists drives Moore to continue to think
of innovative new ways to get up close and personal with cannabis.

Strain: White Widow from Terp Co.

Strain: Nightmare Cookies from Mantis Extracts

*Originally published in Issue 31 of Cannabis Now. *LEARN MORE

*TELL US*, who is your favorite cannabis photographer?

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