Natural Habitats

SAM Christmas has been a professional photographer for the last 3 years and is the man behind Natural Habitats, a collection of photos covering the growing UK custom scene, showing bikes and their builders at home.   

Sam's clients include the likes of Honda, Dainese, Google, Polo Jeans and Edwin denim but Natural Habitats is a personal project that took one and a half years to complete. I got to meet Sam when the exhibition opened in Shoreditch on Thursday evening.

How long have you been taking photos for? 
I didn't get seriously into photography until my 20's. Before that I was more into drawing and have a degree in illustration.

How did you get into motorbikes?
Since I can remember I was always fascinated with bikes- as a kid sat in a car I loved it when a bike sped past, it seemed so exciting, heroic even, that they were out in the wind on two wheels, and I used to watch all the GP races with my dad.

Do you ride, if so what bikes do you own and what would your dream bike be?
Right now I own a Triumph Speed 4 as my daily and also have a '77 Suzuki GS750 as a project bike. For a dream bike, I'd have to pick 2- for my daily/track bike I'd probably go for a Ducati 1198. For summer ride outs I'd love to have a Boneshakers chopper (the bike pictured outside the Natural Habitats window).

If you could photograph anyone in their garage who would that be?
I've been lucky enough to photograph Guy Martin at the Isle of Man TT but I'd love to shoot him in his own garage, working on his 350BHP project.

This project lasted a year and a half. What's next in store for you?
On Thursday 7th Feb I have another exhibition of photos from a road trip I documented for Edwin denim. We rode from London down to Biarritz to the Wheels and Waves event last summer. It's running in their new flagship store in Shoreditch, alongside the video they shot of the trip, which will be shown for the first time too. After that I've just been chatting with Benny at Boneshakers about possibly doing a collaboration exhibition of motorcycles and motorcycle photography. Other than that just lots of road trips hopefully!

The Natural Habitat exhibition can be found at 71A Leonard Street, London EC2A 4AQ and runs until 3rd February. Find out more at www.naturalhabitats.info. More info on Sam can be found at www.samchristmas.co.uk.

By Tom Higham