Adam Wright Interview-Hauler Magazine Creator

I first saw one of Adam’s magazines on Nelson Kanno’s coffee table. I was dropping something off at Nelson’s and while we were talking, I saw these two magazines out of the corner of my eye. As Nelson was talking to me, I couldn’t stop wondering about them. I was so drawn to the magazines that I had to pick one up and take a look. I fell in love with them before I even got half way through. I asked Nelson where he got them from and told me they were created by Adam Wright but were hard to get a hold of and that he may not have anymore. I asked Nelson to try and hook me up so he called Adam to let him know I was interested. Luckily, Adam had a few more and was able to send me one. Ever since then I made sure I was ahead of the game and put my order in advance for the next magazine.

I’ve spoken with Adam a few times over the phone since then and we’ve traded emails back and forth, but I finally made it down to the Santa Cruz area to visit with him on a rainy Saturday night. We sat around and I met his wife, Corinne and his little boy Asa. They have a cozy little surf cottage in La Selva right off the freeway.

He gave me a copy of his newest magazine, Hauler and I recently called him up to talk about it. We discussed how some of the shots came to be and the stories behind the photos.


COLE FOSTER: “I shot with Cole for about an hour that day.” Adam told me. He shoots quite a bit with Cole so he showed up that day to shoot a couple shots around the shop and then went for a quick ride. In regards to the back cover photo; “I don’t know how he made it over that dirt mountain.” Adam said. “Cole yelled to me that he wanted to go over that hill. He told me to go over there to get the shot and by the time I got to the spot he was already going. I was watching through the viewfinder and I thought he was going to break his neck. He got up the hill and the nose was hanging over and I waited and waited for the right moment to get the shot.”


JEFF WRIGHT: “Jeff’s cool! He likes all types of motorcycles like I do. He paints great too. I didn’t know about that until I went to his house. He had killer paints and does all kinds of design stuff.”


DUSTIN HINIKER: “Harley and Vice were creating videos for some blog. They wanted me to shoot it and document it. They were shooting with Dustin and Dave. Some of those shots were from that day and the one shot is of Dustin hanging out at Alex’s bar the next day.”

SCOTT CRAIG: “Me, Scott and Trev were up in Laughlin and Trevelen was doing something for a bike show there. We were just sitting around in the air conditioned casino because it was 100 degrees or something like that outside. We sat in there and did some gambling. Scott Craig rips.”

RYAN REED: “I went to high school with Ryan. He would always build VW’s and had one of them on the cover of Hot VW’s when he was in the 10th grade. He is really good working on newer Harleys. His bikes are super clean. He works out of his garage and does just great stuff.”

JIMMY VAUGHAN: “It really wasn’t my fault that his name is spelled wrong, but since it’s my magazine in the end it is my fault. We were just hanging out in the bar and we were going to shoot the next day but his keyboardist had a stroke. So I’ll have to hook up with him another time and shoot.”


JAY ADAMS: “I couldn’t take him out of the room and I didn’t have a lot of time to shoot him. I think that’s why Garage (Magazine) chose me to shoot it because I don’t need a lot of time to set up. Jay was rad.”

Adam isn’t a new comer to the photography scene and has shot a lot of different things before he began doing Road Coarse and Hauler. “For 5 years I shot NASCAR, AMA motorcycle racing and Indy Cars. Before that for another 5 years I was shooting music and other things. I shot everything from Metellica, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Ozzy. I used to shoot all that stuff. I did a lot of weird stuff. I have some crazy pictures of Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Snoop Dog and the Rolling Stones. Backstage stuff….”

“I could never really do what I want to do with the magazine because of the money. I would like to do one in Sweden and maybe one in Japan. It cost so much to print in color which is why I do black and white. Another thing a lot of people don’t know is my photography is either at night or in the garage.” Adam doesn’t use a flash or a light meter and has been doing this for quite a while now. “I have an idea of where the settings should be, but I’m wrong sometimes too.”

Adam will continue to produce these magazines even though he tends to loose money while doing it. Why does he continue? Adam said, “I make them because they’re fun to do. I get to do something different. I am not really trying to promote my magazines and make them big time. I strictly just do it for me.”