The last month for Hunter has been typical. He just returned from Malaysia, the final stop on a tour with Aoki that included gigs in Shanghai and Tokyo. Earlier, Hunter spent time on the East Coast (New York and Miami) then shot up to Canada before making trips to Mexico and Australia. Finally back in Los Angeles, Hunter has about a week before leaving to Italy —a good month for a guy who doesn’t have a car.
“I work really hard,” Hunter says, “I’ll stay up all night to mail out T-shirts and hand-buttons that I make, and I do all this because I love it and it’s
the best. When you can wake up and be happy to do something, you can’t be in a better place.”
The reason for the trips, however, is simple: Hunter takes photos and extensively catalogues each adventure on his website. Using “the Cobrasnake” as a moniker, he’s succeeded in creating a style, and yes, an attitude, that derives from his photography. “The name is something bigger than myself,” Hunter explains. “I love the fact that the Cobrasnake doesn’t mean just photos or T-shirts. It could be a candy company tomorrow, so it’s really open-ended.”
The plan to make photography a profession was no accident. “I only went to high school to do the photo program. I would stay during lunch and print in the darkroom,” says Hunter. “I wanted to make my own rules and do something I could be excited about on a regular basis. I was always passionate about photography so I wanted to make that my full-time job.”
After about a year of community college, Hunter decided to fully pursue his craft. “I wasn’t really good at the structure of school, so I just started taking photos, pretty dead-set on making it a reality.” The commitment involved working various jobs to save up for cameras and travel. Hunter started paying his way into concerts around Los Angeles and sneaking into parties when necessary with his digital point-andshoot.“ It was a long, slow process. Every night I would go out, take photos and tell people about the website. It just kept building, and I would try to go to SXSW or New York for fashion week, whatever else was going on. I put so much energy into it that it slowly paid off.”
Now Hunter has invites waiting for him and is able to choose which trips he wants to make. “I’m happy that I can control the workload and don’t have to go out every night if I don’t want to.” TheCobrasnake.com continues to flourish, receiving well over 20,000 unique hits a day. “I update the site almost daily,” says Hunter who created and runs the website himself. “People check the site daily because there’s always new stuff.”
TheCobrasnake.com reflects Hunter’s desire to offer an open forum. Albums purposefully house large quantities of photos so that kids can see themselves, for better or worse, and their friends the next day. Photos are unedited, undoctored, and unaccredited.“It’s all about creating things. Even if it’s bad stuff, it’s just cool to do something. When you look at what I’ve done, even if you don’t like it or think it’s good, at least I’ve taken a lot of photos.”
The abundance of photos that Hunter has catalogued over the last four years has created a reference point for kids in Los Angeles and cities across the globe, an influence manifested both through fashion and mainstream trends. Whether
intended or not, Hunter’s craft has become a way of archiving a niche of twenty-first century culture. “Whatever scene I’m photographing that is going on right now in the 2000s,” reflects Hunter, “thirty years from now it will be cool to look back on.”
Regardless of the effects, Hunter continues to photograph the people around him because he loves his job. “Out of 365 days, I probably take photos on 350 of them. I feel that I’m developing by taking photos on a regular basis.” Second to consistency, Hunter values not being obnoxious. “If somebody says ‘Don’t take my photo,’ don’t take their photo, and apologize if you did. Always try to keep good with people.”
Most commendable about Hunter’s success is that he’s relied on himself, never handing website duties over to anyone else or even borrowing to get started. “I don’t want to have to answer to anybody. You’ll have to put up with people who will criticize you, but you shouldn’t get distraught. Just go ahead and do it. I know plenty of people that just talk and never have anything to show. If you can do something that you love and are passionate about, you’ll have such a better life. I’m really happy to have the freedom and flexibility to pursue anything I want.”
- By John Raynes
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