Raw Capture

I visit photographer and filmmaker Isaac Zoller, 37, the morning after a hard rain, smack in the middle of another holiday season. We’d aimed to meet sooner, before the rush, but his father passed away after a long illness. Laguna Beach is shades of pewter and mist, with the sun beginning to force its way through the cloud cover. A few of the local boyos are suiting up with skimboards and shortboards in tow for an “if you know, you know” session at Ninth Street. They disappear down a thousand steps. Zoller greets me at the front door of his modest (by Laguna standards) two-bedroom Craftsman-style bungalow that overlooks a wedge of gray ocean, a rental he splits with his younger brother, pro surfer Nate Zoller.

A casual yet pungent mix of sinsemilla and coastal lacquered wood hangs in the air. He’s comfortably at ease, his athletic frame garbed in a black hoodie and rolled-up black chinos, his head warmed by a tan beanie. Tortoise shades on his face. Stubble, flecked with some gray, at his chin. Grieving still, most certainly. A pop of color at his ankles from a pair of pink tie-dye socks that hit above his waterproof mid-cut sneaker boots. We sit down and take in the view at the porch side.

“It was right after college [at the University of California, Santa Barbara] and studying film, media, and photography when I knew I had a talent and passion for [photography], to practice it more, become better, and really hone the skill,” Zoller says, reflecting on that pivotal moment when he went full tilt into his career. “I was always filming on the beach with Super 8s, point-and-shoots, and Hi8s when we were growing up, and then later I was always shooting my brother or other surfers on trips to Hawaii or Mexico during big swells and getting really cool shots. A lot of it was for myself. I was never looking at it as a job. And, over time, that organic approach built this collection of work.”

His formative years, growing up skimming, skating, and surfing in Laguna, no doubt played a prominent role. Its vibrantly raw, complex, fickle, Mediterranean backdrop and its luscious lighting gave him a unique frame of reference to stand back and be selective about how to capture the nuance of scenery and a subject’s place in it. With Zoller, you won’t find tight, in-your-face lip bashing or performative aerial assaults. His approach requires an eye for understanding the subtext of a moment, releasing your cheek from the canvas, and surrendering to nature’s awe.

“I like to take photos that are organic, raw, and untouched,” Zoller says. “While I also like to shoot digital, I’ve always been drawn to film photography because you can take it and leave it the way it is. You’re not editing an image or manipulating it in any way. For me, it’s about getting images that are natural. But, at the same time, and depending on the image and what it’s asking of you, I like to shoot photos that are underexposed, which means there’s less light coming in, because I think it creates a lot of shadows and contrast. So, sometimes it can be hard to choose between the two [modes].”

The results: the slowdown effect of a blurred-out tube with surfer as phantom against turquoise and teal. A slicing drop-in against a serious blue-black wall. The serenity of sunset’s last glow framing the forces of a distant double-overhead pass. Solitary palm fronds in situ and at play with ominous skies, the grayscale turned up.

Zoller’s still-frame rundown easily ushers you toward a feeling of impermanence. Nothing is forever—waves, time, life. One peep on the ’gram highlights his range. It’s not just the surf that speaks to him. His surf studies share his feed with snowboard shots that span the far-flung mountain regions of Japan to the Sierra, along with chic portraiture of fetching local models. 

“You have to remember, his generation came up right about the time the show [Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County] hit and everything changed,” says Hans Hagen, 52, a Laguna Beach native, former surf pro, filmmaker, entertainment promoter, and director of the Mauli Ola Foundation. “We went from being this blue-collar town with simple, artsy roots to being perceived around the world as a place where rich, dumb people live. But it’s still our surfing community that remains supportive of each other and genuine. [Isaac and I] have done a number of projects together. He has a really good eye, and he’s a creative force. He can hole up behind the editing and just see something uniquely different. You can see that with what he’s doing in fashion, his [surf] edits, and all the work he’s done outdoors. He’s cerebral and willing to take the time to work both sides of it.”

Zoller excels at filmmaking with the kind of resolve that underscores his compelling execution of still photography. As a freelancer, he’s produced clips from locations all over the world and for many different business verticals. But his deep love for Mexico and familial ties to its mainland ushered forth some of his strongest motion work to date via the short film Dear Mexico. 

In early 2022, Laguna Beach–birthed, adventure-centric apparel company Roark, in partnership with surf- and snow-inspired lifestyle shop Neon Wave, launched the film as part of a Roark seasonal campaign and an homage to the spirit of travel after the COVID-19 lockdown. They billed it as a “thank-you letter in visual form.” It’s classic Brothers Zoller—Nate rifling his way across incredible beachbreak swell, Isaac behind the camera, documenting and editing everything. The final cut is imprinted with Zoller’s intentional deployment of slow-motion rides interspersed with stills of fiery fields, wide swaths of tide-wet shoreline, patinaed boat crossings, and golden-halo sunsets. Fleeting in overdrive.

“I love Mexico,” Zoller says. “My grandpa started a button factory in Mexico City a long time ago, and my dad grew up and went to an American school there before coming to Laguna in the ’80s. We’d go there a lot as a family for vacation when [Nate and I] were kids, do the Club Med thing sometimes. And we learned so much about it over the years. [Mainland] is different than Baja. You’ve got to tread lightly and know what you’re doing when you’re there. But it’s definitely my favorite place.”

As a bona fide charger, Zoller knows that the key to nailing great imagery shares a relationship with abstinence. While conditions may be firing, there’s a balance between exploring his own surfing pursuits and what he’s achieving behind the lens.

“Sometimes he’ll wait to go out, or sit out an entire session, to get those shots. Sometimes he’ll go in early,” says Nate. “I think he gets as much satisfaction at capturing a moment [with a camera] as he does surfing. He’s captured some of the better rides of my life. And it always feels like we’re working together and that we can share the moment after the fact. Which makes the beers by the campfire at night that much better.”

Shaper, artist, and friend Tyler Warren, who’s chased many a swell south of the border with Isaac and Nate, sees Zoller’s passion and advanced skill as a surfer being the main catalyst for what separates him from many other celebrated surf photographers.

“What’s unique about Isaac is how he just gets out there and surfs. He’s a really good surfer,” Warren says, “so it’s not like he’s behind the camera all the time. There aren’t many people who can drop everything for a strike mission, go surf it, and document it. A big reason why his work is so special is that he has a great understanding of being at the right place at the right time, knowing where and when to go, and making the right call of whether it’s worth it or not. And it all helps him capture the right angles.”

For Zoller, creative output is the ultimate driver. It’s in his blood. Looking back on his relationship with his dad, painful as it is to ride these initial waves of grief, he says that he owes much of his success as an artist to how his father provided a blueprint for living a creative life. Steve Zoller was an architect and lighting-business owner who designed homes in Laguna and enjoyed painting watercolor plein air and acrylic abstract genres.

“I think that I got a lot of my creativity from him,” Zoller says. “He was such an awesome guy and just so supportive. Whether it was getting us to soccer and baseball when we were kids, taking us to surf contests, filming us—he was always an inspiration. Whatever work I print, I dedicate to him.”

In the end, it’s the one shot that makes a final cut. While the clouds dissipate and the sun warms this cold coast, Zoller says he doesn’t look at getting to “the shot” as a straight line, though.

“I like to think about it like, ‘Surfing teaches and photography teaches,’” he says. “You kind of lose more than you win. It’s all part of the game. I’ll definitely take more photos that aren’t the shot, but then once you get the good one, it makes it all worth it. And the same with surfing. You’re going to catch a hundred waves, and you probably won’t remember those hundred. And that hundred and first will be the good one, and you’ll remember it for your whole life.”

[Feature image: John “Robo” Robertson and I took a 12-day road trip to central Baja. We surfed this right point alone all day. With an hour of daylight left, I figured I’d get some photos and snapped him in the tube. On this trip, I learned that Robo is equally talented at driving off-road as he is through barrels. He’d haul ass through sand dunes in his two-wheel-drive Ford Explorer. If we got stuck, he’d use the spare tire as an anchor and his axle for a winch to get out.]