This is Now Magazine

My name is Fabien Caudy (@lapetitecalifornie on Instagram); I am 37 years old and live in Biarritz, in the South West of France. I have been a photographer for three years but I prefer to say that I have always been an artist.

I have been shooting with film for 2 years, because I couldn’t get the feeling with digital cameras, it’s too sanitised for me. Having so much assistance to take a photo, having to use filters, that in the end, you don’t even take the time to
compose your photo or look through the viewfinder to see what’s going on. Film photography is more personal for me, lighting errors can often become nice surprises, bad framing gives dynamics to a photo.

I started photography not on the advice of photographers, but from photo technicians as I call them. They explain that a photo must have a good exposure, that it must be well framed, without defects, but I have always found it very boring because I did not feel anything when I looked at their pictures. So, I decided to free myself from all these codes and turn to other artists who made photography more alive, in my eyes.

Today I like to shoot atypical characters, girls who have something very melancholic in their attitudes, bikers, skaters, tattoo culture too, everything that is or has been on the margins of society and that reminds me of freedom.

So, here we are in this strange space where someone tries to write a little something to help others know them better. My name is Josh Hayes and I’m a California native living in Vienna, Austria for the last 12 years. I started taking a photography class when I was 14, in my first year of high school where I learned the ropes in the dark room - from there it turned into a serious hobby. The interest in documenting people carried on through my adolescence and lead me to art school for photography. To be terribly honest, university had seriously dampened my fire for photography and so did working professionally as a photographer after school. Though, I stoped shooting as a professional for quite some time, I still kept shooting for myself but mainly with the camera we always have with us, my phone. During a trip back to the states, my wife wanted to get some disposable cameras to just have fun with and document our trip. Surprisingly, this was the spark to draw me back into the photography world.
Soon after our return we started developing black and white film at home, and I haven’t looked back since. Around this same time my obsession with everything two wheels has lead me back to the type of motorcycle I personally prefer, choppers. This was the perfect storm for me with my little 35mm film camera: to start finding and sharing the stories of the people silently working away in anything from a small dark 1 bike shed or a big professional set-up.
Seeing and making the connection from person to person about our shared obsession with bikes and the freedom and hell they provide us. So, here’s to the next story or link in the chain that connects us all and great things waiting to be documented.

I had been tinkering with Harleys for over a decade when I got bitten by the chopper bug. In my quest for proper chopper magazines, I soon discovered that there were only a few good publications, but all made overseas. With no knowledge of how to create a magazine or capture photos that are a bit more than snaps, I decided to start my own magazine, and voila! This is Now! Magazine was born over 10 years ago. I purchased a camera from a friend and dove into it. The release parties were as crucial as the magazine itself, and they were well attended.
Despite the magazine’s positive reception, I encountered distribution challenges and had to halt production after just four issues because I simply ran out of money.

Fortunately, luck was on my side, and I was hired by Dutch Bigtwin magazine to run my own 16-pages of choppers section called Breeze. When I crossed paths with the folks at Motorcycle Storehouse, I received an offer to develop and manage a new magazine. 13½ Magazine became a big success, and alongside the magazine, I created an apparel line in true 13½ style. However, due to rising print costs and a change in management, 13½ was discontinued after 21 issues. The absence of a print version was immediately felt.

I parted ways with Motorcycle Storehouse, and now, over a decade since the first issue of This is Now!, I am resurrecting the magazine in a new format alongside a collective of talented photographers. For the love of print, photography, and choppers!