[engine whirring]
[Jason] This is a dream come true.
I'm actually lighting for Todd Hido.
Move in closer?
I'm using my brake lights.
[producer] Back up halfway.
Halfway.
I'm using the truck to bounce a bit of a red on that wall,
so it will look good.
Oh, can't believe this is happening.
This is unbelievable.
["Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica playing]
♪ And the road Becomes my bride ♪
♪ I have stripped Of all but pride ♪
♪ So in her I do confide ♪
♪ Off the beaten path I reign ♪
♪ Rover, wanderer ♪
♪ Nomad, vagabond ♪
♪ Call me what you will ♪
♪ Wherever I may roam ♪
♪ Wherever I may roam, yeah ♪
Just being in this neighborhood, I got a little bit anxiety
'cause I'm like, I wonder if all these people know that
Todd Hido lives here.
Hey, Todd!
Oh, man!
[exclaims] Ah!
Nice to meet you, man.
-Man, it's nice to meet you, too, brother. -Yeah, yeah.
-Your house is beautiful. -Thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
-Wow! -Come on in.
I'll take the shoes off.
Well, the first time I saw his photos,
that was at least 18 years ago, maybe.
It was just, "Who's taking pictures of my memories?
How did this person get in my mind?"
Walking into his place
and seeing those pictures and those colors,
that was just an open heart
going like, "Bro, blast them on an aloha to go like...
I mean, I truly 100 percent moved by your work.
I wanna make my movies like you.
I wanna shoot like you."
-There it is. -[Todd] Yeah.
[Jason] Okay, so that was my favorite painting that you've ever made.
-Uh-huh. -For me.
Because it just reminded me
exactly the backstreets of where I'm at.
That was, like, that was the first one that I saw.
[Todd] Jason and I met
because he liked something of mine on Instagram.
And I was like, "Oh, that's Jason Momoa."
I didn't know anything about his love of photography.
I didn't know much about him except he was an actor
and I liked what he did.
I don't think I really understood
how much of a true fan he was of my work
and how much he knew about it.
[Jason] So, my best friend,
him and I used to get postcards.
We put 'em everywhere.
I'd get two copies of your books.
-I can travel with them, I can hang 'em on my wall. -[Todd] Oh, wow.
Hido, Hido. It goes like this, buddy.
-It goes, Tom Waits... -[Todd] Uh-huh.
-...and there's Todd Hido. -[Todd] Oh, man.
-[Jason] You're fucking up there, bro. -That's fucking awesome.
You might be out here. As far as I go, you're like...
There may be a filmmaker in there somewhere.
But you're fucking top. I might even say four.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
It's insane, like, because the way how I feel
and how I see...
My God, dude. It's...
All that stuff, it's like, Hido has like...
I wanna thank you for everything you make, man.
I'm not a big photography fan
in the sense of, like, I collect photography.
I only have Todd. I only look at his stuff.
And even though he has all these books that inspire him,
you know what I mean, like it's just him.
It's so simple for me.
-[Todd] Yeah, yeah, thank you. -Yeah.
This is my birthday present.
-[Todd] Yeah, it's awesome. -I'm at Todd Hido's house.
[all laughing]
Just before, it's "Hai-do"
-"Hai-do!" -Yeah, yeah. People always--
Fucking A!
Yeah, it should be called Hido.
My name is Marina.
My name is Marina Luz.
My name is Marina Luz Hido. [laughs]
[laughing] Okay, wait. Start over.
My name is Marina Luz.
And I am Todd Hido's wife.
And I try to help him out by driving him around,
so he's free to look at the world.
Based on his artwork,
people think he's probably like a moody, quiet loner.
He is a talkative goofball.
And I love that.
-Fuck, yeah, bro. I got this. -[Todd] There we go.
-[Marina laughs] -Listen, I don't ride in the back seat for anyone.
That's the biggest compliment I can give.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
[Marina] He reminds me a lot of J in a lot of ways.
Like, the way their minds work.
I can just see both of them
just taking in the entire world.
This is gonna be so exciting.
The fog is rolling in and it's smoky.
So, Todd has never had this before,
so we brought him the luck.
Oh, man!
I just wanna learn from him.
I wanna see his process.
Just be a fly on the wall and, like, watch him work.
We drove 20 minutes, 30 minutes,
and all of a sudden the fog hits,
and then, wazang!
There's a frickin Todd Hido painting.
Through the windshield,
there's all the raindrops
and all the mist, all the fog,
and I'm like, "Holy shit.
I cannot believe what I'm seeing."
Wow.
[Todd] I found this one neighborhood in Pacifica.
It was like, way back in 1996,
and I've been going there ever since to make pictures.
So, like, I'm sure that I was, like,
I was scanning, like, right here somewhere
on the tripod and stuff and, like,
and that covered car was, like,
right where that white car is.
And this is the light.
The wind was moving on up, that it was like blowing the car cover.
[Jason] It's crazy, this is the spot right here.
[Todd] Oh, yeah, this is it.
This is special, man.
[Todd laughs]
You got me, dude.
[exclaims] Oh, man!
Dude, I'm so stoked.
-Wow! -I'm stoked, too, man.
And these lights only get better
-'cause everyone's lights are turned on. -Yeah.
Look at this beach house, look at these windows.
Who the fuck makes them? Look at this house!
[Todd] A lot of the houses look just like the houses in the Midwest
because they were built by the same builder
of the first suburb of America which was Levittown.
They built a neighborhood in Pacifica,
which is bizarre, but true.
Ah, look at the view, dude.
Great to meet you, man. It's really fun.
-Awesome. -I'm gonna show you guys something else, too.
So, that's a lot of window and then,
-back of this house-- -[Jason] Those are rad!
If you turn right, right here,
-we can park, like, right there... -[Marina] Yep.
[Todd] ...where there's no people.
I revisit places a lot
because it's always, like, if you're panning for gold
and you strike gold, like, you don't go and move down the river.
You know, you keep your stick around that area a little bit.
And I've revisited places...
If you go right.
...and I've noticed things change in so many places.
[Jason] But also you change and your eyes changes and--
[Todd] Yeah, it's true.
[Jason] The thing, too, is the environment changes
and that's, like, such a huge crucial point in both of our art forms.
It is that thing of, like, constantly being aware and being in the moment
and searching and looking and enlightenment is like being aware.
And so, when you're out hunting in those moments,
you're getting inspired by all these things.
It's like, that's what fuels me.
And to be in the passenger seat
with him in the cockpit, like, "Bro, I can't believe this is happening."
We just rolled up to some supermarket
and I'm like, "Wow, is it like, KFC and fucking Taco Bell?"
And then we roll out and he goes behind the grocery store,
and it's like, there's a pink house,
there's a beige house, there's the blue house,
and they're, I mean, it's fucking paintings.
It's insane.
And it's all foggy!
It's foggy with smoke,
and then it just happens to have water on our windshield right now.
It's insane, bro. My mind is--
[man on phone] That's his thing, isn't it?
That's his fucking thing, but I just rolled right in.
And we just came from, like, sun.
Right at his house and there was sun out.
-[man on phone] Insane. -[Jason] It's unbelievable.
[Todd] Over the years, I've learned
that all the good stuff is behind something else.
Behind a hotel or behind the supermarket
or in a back around the fence.
So, like, that's the part of the world
that people aren't paying attention to
and that's where the reality is.
[exclaims] Yeah!
Yeah!
License and registration, sir.
Oh, excuse me.
"I'm Todd Hido."
-Oh, okay. My bad, sir. -[laughs]
It's funny.
It's an amazing house, but--
Also, what's cool about this car is perfect
is it's just nondescript.
-Yeah. -It's just like, nobody notices you.
That's what I got to do, bro.
You get rid of that pink Cadillac, man.
Pink Cadillac and the gigantic earth warmer.
You need a little more, like, a bit more, like, lowkey.
Maybe cut the hair and take off the pink shirt.
-Yeah, right. -Look at me! Look at me!
It just makes you wanna hunt. You know what I mean?
He has it in him.
It's just hunting for places and moments,
and what the environment holds and every day is different.
Every day has its own beauty and you just got to have the right set of eyes.
It's all in the back alleyways.
Side beads underneath the table.
I just call it the psion filter.
-Yeah, psion. -You can go just like, "We're using psion filter."
-Yes, exactly. -[Jason] Perfect.
[Todd] Shooting through the window,
which is something I do, not all the time, but a lot of the time.
It happened from just like,
you know, I was driving down the road,
and it was starting to rain.
And there was just all this amazing stuff happened in front of me,
but I couldn't stop the car because I was driving.
So, I just took a few photographs that way,
and then, they worked.
There was something about, like, the look
that that gave the picture through the window of the car.
It's just has this feeling that that works for me.
I think his photographs work in a lot of the same ways as memories
where your memory isn't perfectly sharp.
You remember certain things with perfect clarity
or you think you do,
and then, other things are a little fuzzy.
And that's the way his images work.
[Jason] His eye pierces my heart.
Being raised in Iowa,
I knew what it was like to go and sit on the prairies
and drive hours without seeing anything
and in that space, I just
you got to get creative.
[lilting music playing]
[Todd] There's this thing in photography about the decisive moment.
I know for a fact there's decisive moments out in the landscape
that have to do with light, the weather,
and the place and you coming together all at the same time.
[Jason] A lifetime of honing his craft
has given Todd a kind of control over his images
that appears effortless.
This is pretty surreal because
we're in a ranch market.
It's like a... a shopping center.
-[Todd] Cue the rain. -And he stops right here.
It's not raining outside,
but because of the condensation,
he waits and he gets...
I can hear it all the rain getting on the windshield.
And there's fog in this town, obviously, we're close to the ocean
in Northern California.
And it gets rainy.
And we go down this back alleyway.
This isn't much and that's all you can see.
We see a light come on to the fog inside one of the houses.
You know, how we were talking about perfect timing.
We were exactly where we're supposed to be.
And I'm standing behind Todd and I'm like, "I just wanna capture him.
It's like he's in his own painting right now."
And I'm just sitting there looking at Todd
and he's in his painting right now.
I'm completely in his world.
-Wow! -[Todd] That's a beauty. I like that.
Like, perspective, and then the clouds.
Like, the sky looks purple right now.
It's cool.
[Jason] It's basically, Hido's dreamland.
[Todd] It really is, like, fucking cool. I love it here.
I've been coming here for 20 years, man.
Look at that, the maestro.
So often I go out and shoot,
and sometimes, I don't get out of the car to take a picture
because I'm like, "It's not as good as the other,
-it's not as good or better than my other pictures." -Yeah.
And that kind of hinders you a little bit,
that thinking, but then,
and then I tell myself, it's like, you know,
like, "No, dumbass, you need to get out of the fucking car.
-[Jason] You gotta have fun, man. -Because...
how'd you get all those fucking pictures,
it's by getting out of the car and doing in the pictures
and doing it.
And like, that's like as good as it gets for me.
This is like, a picture that I love right now.
Like look at that glowing window
and the people came into this other bedroom,
and the curtains are slid a little bit.
So, we had house lights on. He turned it off.
The neighbor's light turned off.
I was like, "We'll pull the truck around, we'll light it."
It's gonna be the one.
[Todd] The thing about Jason and I,
I figured it out, like, why does he liked me,
what's he interested in?
Or why does he like my work?
And then, he told me he was from Iowa.
And I was like, "Of course."
He loves the landscapes that I make
because Iowa is just like Ohio.
There's something about the understanding of that space in the wintertime.
And the openness that living in a place like that brings
that is this one thing that brought us together
which I think is really fascinating.
[Todd laughs]
[melancholic music playing]
-[Jason] Thank you, sir. -[Todd] You're welcome.
-[Jason] Wow! -[door creaks]
[exclaims] Oh.
Oh!
That one slayed me.
That fucking slayed me.
[Todd] I love that one.
This one slayed me, that one slayed me.
And the goddamn crosses in Iceland slayed me.
Oh, yes. I have that one under here.
-Oh! -Yes, yes.
-[Jason] God damnit! -[Todd laughs] I'm glad you like that.
[Jason exclaims] Oh!
[Todd] I have been doing photography
in some shape or form every day
since I was like, you know, 18-years-old.
When I was a teenager,
I used to race BMX.
Where I grew up in Kent, Ohio,
we had dirt tracks
that we would make in the woods.
You know, just like any kid with an iPhone and a skateboard,
you wanna record what you're doing
and what your friends are doing.
And so, I learned how to take pictures of my friends.
Photography really actually sort of saved me
because I was a classic Midwestern boy.
I wasn't maybe so sure what I was doing in life.
Once I started making pictures,
and I started realizing how much I liked it.
It changed the way I looked at everything.
The worst thing for me is like, it's sunny
and everything's perfect, you know?
I always liked the mood of the atmosphere and like--
I was wondering to that,
like, if you drive out some place,
just kind of depressed 'cause you...
Or you're just like heavily depressed because it was a beautiful day?
Yeah.
I have become really adept at looking at weather reports,
and I secretly, like, harbor a desire to be an actual storm chaser.
It's, like, out in Elko, Nevada,
I heard that there's frozen fogs.
I went out there for a few days.
That's what I wanna talk about.
I was, like, you have to study weather patterns.
I do. I totally know all about that.
And I'm like all over that.
[Jason] You're like, tornado watch.
Bombing the tornadoes that's going to get you.
I would love to be in a fucking tornado.
The thing about Jason that's incredible
is he has a million ideas, and he's a mile a minute.
And I'm actually kinda like that, too.
I'm excited to see who inspires you
because after I got to you,
I was really disappointed with the world.
[Todd] Oh, really?
Yeah. I'm like, "Now what?"
[Todd] He came at a time when like,
people weren't out about doing a bunch of things.
And it was amazing to have this
big lovable man,
you know, kind of descend upon your world,
and be in awe of every inch of it.
[Jason] I'll be your assistant, Mr. Hido.
[Todd] Oh, yes, you can. Can you type fast?
-Nope. -[Todd] Okay. We have a problem.
-How do we get into this thing? -[Todd laughs]
You just hit it, right?
It's just nice to have somebody appreciate
all the little things that you've created in your world.
I love this one. Like this is when I started to realize, like,
you know, these are about, like, relationships.
Two people watching TV
with the lights off at the same time in different rooms,
and like what the fuck is...
like, what's the relationship like,
like, why aren't they together, you know?
And I started to realize they were like, it's about what happens in the house,
you know, and it's about showing these things
without actually showing the people that are involved in it all.
Looking at my books, with him,
page by page,
that's not something you get to do with many people.
That's my dad. And my dad is fucking college graduation, you know,
holding up my brother and like, the empty keg.
This one's crazy. It's like his diploma and my brother.
It's like two accomplishments.
And my dad was like, he was a football player.
It was like, my dad grew up in like this crazy fucking household.
It was so bad him and his brother would go sleep in the trunk
wrapped in a fucking rug,
you know, sometimes at night
and and he grew up like, in this crazy household.
So like, you know, I understand where he comes from,
but like he raised hell in our house, too,
you know, and there's a lot of that in my work, you know.
That's kind of where like, that's, like, the thing
that like kind of fuels a lot of it.
To personally sit and go through work with him,
I'll always remember that
it was really something that was like, "Wow.
He has a real true appreciation of my work."
-And that was really special for me. -Wow!
Beautiful.
After that time with Todd,
I was just buzzing with creativity.
My work took me all over the world.
But Todd and I, we stayed in touch.
It was just the beginning.
What time is it?
[producer] 07:45.
-07:45. -[producer] Yeah.
I thought it was four in the morning.
I just woke up at Todd's studio.
I was talking about his paintings.
[producer] You are in his paintings.
[Jason] I am in his paintings.
We got in super late last night,
but I'm pumped because today we're going hunting with Todd.
Taking out some new cameras to a place called Eames Ranch.
[heavy metal music playing in radio]
[door closes]
[Todd] There's something about like things that are destroyed
that aren't as interesting as things that are just left.
This is the new me.
The last time that we filmed,
I just had a gastric bypass surgery.
And so, I was, you know, the same person
that I had been for probably most of my adult life,
you know, overweight
and not as healthy as I should be.
My mom did it three years ago and it worked for her,
you know, and I was like,
Well, damn, my mom is my inspiration,
like, I mean, if she did it, I can do this.
This light is amazing, right?
It is the most important thing I have probably done in my adult life
was to become healthy.
I, like, got to restart my life
and it's really amazing that you guys have been able to, like,
the before and after part of that.
[Jason] He shared so much with me.
So, I wanted to buy him something special.
Todd shoots medium format and I love Leica.
Put it together, you got the Leica S3.
One of my favorite digital cameras.
I don't change equipment very much
because, you know, I've known that, like,
how do you get really good at something
is by having some things be constant
that you know and master.
And then, you know, the things that change are what you bring into it.
When somebody can introduce you to something
and you grow from it,
that's the best scenario for everybody.
[Jason] To be able to be taught by your idol,
your master, your teacher,
and like there will be no one bigger,
and to be able to buy him
this medium format Leica camera,
which I believe is, like, I love Leica, right?
So, I wanted to get him the medium format
which they just don't have that many of them.
And they're expensive.
What better thing to do is buy your idol this new paintbrush
and go like, "Hey, let's go shoot this together.
And I'm gonna learn from you."
[melancholic music playing]
[Jason] It's crazy 'cause there's this house
that's preserved at the Eames Institute.
And it looks like it's just out of a Hido painting.
It's so surreal
that you walk in, it's like this place is just held in time.
You wish we wouldn't take these things away.
I almost wanted to turn them into museum pieces
and keep it the way it was and how history was.
It's like, "Man, just not too far back in the 50s,
out in Petaluma is pretty crazy.
That neon green goes with this,"
and like you get to see
what fashion was back then and how time has passed.
And it never changed,
and it had this dust of time on it.
Once again, I was in one of his paintings
and it's phenomenal.
I love the stuff, like, left behind like those hangers.
In the closet.
-I know, right? -[Todd] Yeah.
-[Jason exclaims] Ooh! -[Todd] Yeah, there we go.
-Ooh! -Like, that's awesome.
-[Jason] Yes! -[Todd] Beautiful, right?
-[Jason] Epic. -Thank you.
[Jason] Never in a million years did I ever think
I would be shooting side-by-side with Todd.
I didn't even think I could be friends
on this level with him.
Wow.
[Todd] The thing I'm most attracted to is like the light.
-I just kinda follow the light around a lot of times. -[Jason] Okay.
[Todd] And I try to shoot into it and like it gets me started.
So, like I don't wanna blow out those highlights,
but this is kind of about that color
-and that gold. -[Jason] Yeah.
[Todd] When you move your camera, like,
-just an incremental ways... -[Jason] Yeah.
[Todd] ...it really slows you down
and shows you what it is.
It's possible.
[Jason] He's more Aloha than I am.
You know, he is truly, wants people to know,
there's no great mystery, it's just putting in the work
and doing it and getting out there.
And like he shares it.
It's not like this, he takes one picture and like,
he really is still searching trying to master his craft.
-[Jason] Fucking great, bro. -[Todd] Thank you.
[Jason] There it is.
[Todd] When you start to go into the room,
you realize that, like, "Oh, there's a lot more
than just one picture in this room."
You know, and then a lot of times it's just like,
getting, like, in just a different point of view.
You know, coming over here and then changing the light with those,
you know like with the blinds,
like, there's, like, perfect light control.
Bro.
Yes, sir.
[Todd] There's something about the space,
like a home and, like, the surfaces.
The surfaces tell the story.
My family had a carpet like this in our house,
it was orange, you know?
We had, like, curtains like that
without light coming through,
and like I just remember that kind of stuff.
There's something about like,
the spaces that you remember from your childhood are...
they're just embedded in your memory, I think.
And then, you just respond.
-It's a time capsule, I mean. -Yeah.
I've never had this much fun taking pictures in my life.
Really? That's just awesome.
When you just walk in and you're like, "Oh my God,"
and you're absolutely right.
It's just like, a little bit of an angle, little bit here,
-inch this way, inch that way. -Right.
When we're sealing, shadows are changing,
lights are changing.
Like, right now, I'm having kind of an anxiety
'cause we should be in another room shooting more.
Because of the light.
-But it's like... -Yeah, we got time. Right.
...amazing to be shot by you.
I've never even seen...
I know, you know, we're both from Midwest,
but I've never seen carpet like this,
and I've never seen a chair like this.
It's something about, like, this era
that I think just really like, it just tells a story.
How do you find that thing that you do
that grooved in your making for yourself?
That comes from time.
You don't even know enough to even look for that when you start,
but as you go on into it,
you start to navigate your way
into making pictures that become
more distinctly yours.
[Jason] I wanna train my eye like that,
and really understand the technology the way he does
and the craft that he does.
So, it was huge for me. [laughs]
[Jason] Ooh!
Holy fucking guy!
-[Todd] That's pretty fucking nice, right? -[Jason] Jesus!
[camera shutter clicks]
[Jason] Bro.
Is this what heaven looks like? Like fucking...
This is like, I'm... seriously.
Can we do this for the rest of our lives?
-[Todd] Yeah, totally. Like, yeah. -Yeah!
-I'm down. -[Jason] I'm like, "This is it, bro."
This is fun.
[Jason] I wear my heart on my sleeve.
And it couldn't be more passion coming out this guy
'cause this is it, this is the top for me.
It's really cool to have Todd and his wife, Marina, be like,
"We're totally pumped because it's a little rejuvenation."
They've been doing it for, I don't know, 30 years or something like that.
It's just like a nice feeling to go,
"Man, this guy is really, really stoked on me and what I've done."
[Marina] There's a lot of overlap between him and J.
They never stop learning.
They never want to stop learning.
They think everything is interesting and...
and that's exhilarating to stand next to and be part of.
And I just feel so lucky to be along for the ride with him.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Todd] Jason and I have been communicating back and forth often.
When he comes into your life,
like he's in your life in his large way,
and that's a wonderful thing.
He's so damn excited about things,
which is awesome, you know?
Like, it's, like, there's not many people in the world that have that exuberance.
[laughing]
I really appreciate, like, the willingness you guys have to learn
and the questions that you're asking.
You guys draw all this stuff out of me that...
that reminds me of, like, me being a teacher,
like, you know, 20 years ago.
A lot of times, like, the students these days are not so engaged,
but you guys are so hungry for info.
-[Jason] Yeah. -And like, that's a gift,
and I like it.
-That's awesome. -[Jason] Those are amazing.
[Todd] That's amazing.
-And look at what happens with the fog. -Yep.
[Todd] It makes the whole entire picture lighter
because what happens is, it suspends itself
-in the air... -[Jason] Yep.
[Todd] ...and that catches the light that you don't even know is there.
I love these ones with me here.
-That's a really good-- -Isn't that great?
It's fucking great, man. I love it.
Yeah. [exclaims]
Like, look at that, you gotta send me those.
[Jason] That's amazing.
Like, who would ever think that we were twinsies.
[both laugh]
[Todd] So, J.
I know you don't really usually get hand me downs...
I would love your hand me downs, are you kidding me?
-I'm gonna hand this down to you. -[Jason] Oh, wow!
And this is like your rig.
And this thing is like, fucking monster.
[Jason] That thing is ma...
It's weird because people get excited when they see me,
and they're like, "Oh, sign your trident and sign this, and..."
you know, it's like, "Oh, yeah, of course."
And it's beautiful for kids and...
and I understand it.
Like, it's literally his tripod.
It's crazy, it's just the most fan weird thing that I have.
But it means the world to me that he cared enough
and can see that I was passionate enough
to deserve something like that.
-You're welcome. -If they made a tripod, that's definitely my tripod.
It's fucking meant for you, right?
-I love it. -I love it, too.
From you, it means everything.
Thank you, thank you.
I'm so happy that you like it, so.
[Jason] I never had the opportunity to see Todd's work in a museum.
I've only experienced it through books.
So, it was a pretty big honor to go see it for the first time with him.
This is, I would say one of the best photography museums
in the entire world.
[Todd] Yep, and that's the Bay Bridge.
When I was a kid, I don't think I've ever been to a museum.
The culture was not like my parents' cup of tea,
you know, because they were busy working.
My mom was a cashier at a drug store
and my dad was a plumber,
and they worked all the time.
And so, they didn't have time to know about that stuff.
Ow!
-I'll do it. -Yeah.
Okay, all right.
So, this is the first time I'm also seeing this
work framed,
which is something that was made...
for...
This is my body of work, bright black world.
It's not been seen in this context like this.
And the pandemic slowed everything down.
And so, this was on hold,
and I haven't even seen, like, these frames,
-which I'm blown away by. -[exclaims] Oh!
-[Todd] Right? Thank you, man. -[Jason] These are amazing.
[Todd] Thank you.
I never ever would have imagined
that my work would be collected by a museum.
That somebody thinks enough of what you do
that they wanna save it,
and show it to somebody else,
like, I mean, that's about as good as it gets in life.
[Jason] Working with Todd inspired me to learn
more about the tools we use to make pictures.
It showed me how much I didn't know
and how much I wanted to know.
This looks like old Macintosh. Argh!
Why isn't my facetime working?
Nineteen-seventy-seven, Ralph has been here.
You made all my lenses, bro.
[all laughing]
You son of a bitch!
To have an invitation to be able to go to like,
it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Bro.
-[applauds] -[giggling]
Yay! Keep it up!
So, I had this chance to pick up some historic cameras.
So, of course, I invited Todd to take a look at what I got.
-Ta-da! -[Todd] Wow!
Wow!
[Jason] Look what I got today.
-It's incredible. -[Jason exclaims] Whoo!
Being on this journey with Todd has introduced me to other artists.
Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie
in the world.
This came out the year I was born.
Oh, my God, bro. Look at that.
It's all the photos
that the set photographer took
of ten of 30, look at that.
[Todd] Wow!
[Jason] These are all the photos he took on set.
Apocalypse Now.
Hopper was wearing these, bro!
These are his. This is a fucking set, man.
-[Todd] Wow. -This is the bag.
[Todd] I can't believe you have... That's a Walker Evans' camera.
That's incredible.
[Jason] Walker Evans was a depression era photographer.
He took pictures of the mundane
and made the ordinary into art.
-I'm blown away. -[Todd] I am, too.
I remember learning about this in the history of photography,
like, Walker Evans, many are called,
and it's all these expanded photographs
of people on the subway.
That in order to achieve this level of like,
not being aware of the camera,
like what Walker Evans did was,
you know, he blacked out the camera,
and he painted the camera black,
and he put it in his coat,
and he had a little, like, a cable release
but not a little one, a long one
that was up his sleeve.
And he can take the photographs.
And that's why,
that's how these people, these pictures are so...
-[Andrew] Inconspicuous? -Inconspicuous, exactly.
-That's exactly what they always were like that. -[Jason] Amazing.
I mean, it's amazing and I mean,
I can't believe this was Walker Evans' camera.
It's like incredible.
I'm very, very interested in the history of photography.
You know, I live in a house that has 7,000 books of photographs.
That's the number one thing that you can do
to just sort of advance yourself visually
is just to take in a lot of things.
I never understood people that were afraid of being influenced.
That's what you want.
This is the first release,
the first commercial like it.
-I mean, it's a piece of history. -Yeah.
Like the Walker Evans' camera,
these inventions change the way we see the world
because they were able to travel the world
without having to carry a wooden camera and glass plates.
When we speak about these kinds of things,
we are not the owners.
We are only the people that transport them in time
for someone else to come after us.
And I think this is the secret of life.
Kind of a lot of other things that people love to love.
-We transport them. -We transport them.
[camera shutter clicks]
First off, welcome to my home.
Thank you.
That's my dream come true to have, like,
-a little blues shack with... -[Todd exclaims] Oh-ho!
-Nat's here. -This gentleman.
[Jason] This gentleman is here.
Well, last time we were together,
we were in Germany.
-Right? -Yeah.
I got the Apoc... Come over here.
I got the Apocalypse Now.
Do you even know where the fuck these cameras are?
I said does he even know where the fuck these cameras are?
[Todd] He knew because I told him.
Seriously, I'm like, "What the fuck?"
I know they are, but I didn't know Robert Walker.
-No, no, Walker Evans. -Walker Evans.
-Yeah. -[all laughing]
-Robert Walker is nobody. -Yeah, yeah.
Robert Johnson and Johnny Walker,
-they're buddies. -Yeah.
-Walker Evans, like I was saying. -Yeah.
[laughing]
So, this is his camera.
[Jeremiah] It's his camera?
[Todd] It's the exact camera that Walker Evans used.
[Jason] And I wanted to open it up, but it's like, "Dude."
[Todd] He's a huge inspiration of mine.
Like, Walker Evans is one of my favorite photographers.
These cameras, machines that we, like, use...
Like these bikes that you all make,
all these things have a history to them.
And it's really important that lineage I think is curious
and it means a lot to me.
-[Jason] Finally. -[Todd] Wow.
I got something that Todd Hido wants.
[all laughing]
He doesn't want old rusty cars.
He doesn't want dirty clothes.
He doesn't want Harley's, he doesn't want guitars.
He wants cameras, I'm like, "What am I gonna do?"
And he's one of my best bro and my idol.
So, I'm like, "I'm gonna buy his fucking camera for him."
-Yeah. -And that I did not know when you were bidding on it.
-And I'm gonna buy his fucking camera. -I did not know that.
I was not encouraging any...
I was just telling him, how...
-He is excited. -I was just like,
-literally-- -I'm serious, brother.
[exclaims] Oh, God!
["Hobo Wine Blues" by Nat Myers playing]
♪ My darling is kind And sweet ♪
♪ Whenever they tasting Like shaking sugary ♪
♪ My darling Sipping nitroglycerine ♪
♪ Asking for water Give me gasoline ♪
♪ My darling show you ♪
♪ Something you never Seen before ♪
♪ Daddy gonna Walk in the room ♪
♪ Like a dog on all fours ♪
[Jason] So, this kind of came to fruition because
I travel with all of Todd's paintings,
and put them in my houses around the world.
I just like wanna travel with my favorite stuff.
Remind of my kids at home.
We're trying to make it a little bit more portable and baggable.
So, we thought about, we wanna make something together.
[Todd] And this is the portfolio box
that my agent used in New York City
for like, 20 years.
And of course, this is designed,
-so you can fuck it up a little bit. -[Jason] Yeah.
[Todd] This is like library cloth.
This is deadstock library cloth.
Marina designed this.
[Jason] It's amazing.
[gasps] Oh, shit, dude!
It's... [laughs]
Jeremiah.
Look at this. I'm blasting through on the rough.
I'm in a fucking Hido painting, man!
-[Todd] You are in it. -[Jason exclaims] Ah!
That is so cool, man.
Wow.
-Dude. -[Todd] I made a rubber stamp.
And this collection will grow.
Beautiful.
And some of these are pictures that are new
that I haven't, like, I haven't even shared with anybody,
-I love this one. -It's amazing.
It was... Oh, bro.
[Todd] Like, so this is my Leica.
-The S3 that you helped me. -[Jason] Yep.
[Todd] That clarity, man.
-[Jason] That's the S3? -[Todd] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that camera,
and that fill, too, those are the ones--
-[Jason] What the hell? -[Todd] I got rid of all the cameras.
[Jason] Wow.
We've been there, bro.
-[Todd] And look at the colors. -[Jason] It's so good.
-[exclaims] Oh! -[Todd] All right.
[Jason] Oh, I love this one so much.
Fuck! I'm sorry, beep.
Look at that. Look at that.
Oh, my God. It's so good.
-Thank you. And this is that camera. -Ah!
-Ah. -You gave me.
I love that, like, you asked me to make something for you.
[Jason] It's like everything keeps evolving, going like,
"Well, this will be our shots."
-Right. -From our time together.
-Todd's freaking diary, man... -Yeah.
-...of, like, what we're gonna do. -So cool.
And I'm so up for all this
and I'm so excited
-and it makes me so happy. -[Jason exclaims] Ah!
-I love you. -I love you, man.
-Oh, God. Thank you so much, J. -[Jason] Thank you.
[melancholic music playing]
[Todd] Being an artist, you give up a lot.
It's not for everybody.
A young woman wrote on the internet,
"Todd Hido was making pictures of my memories,
but we've never met."
That's it, right there.
That is what it is.
That's what you hope for.
That somebody that is able to, like, understand you
or have a better understanding of another person
through an image.
That's the kind of thing that you you trade for a nine-to-five job.
I wouldn't trade all the uncertainty that I've had
for anything.
[Jason] In life, I think each, one door opens, another opens, another opens and another.
And if you really truly put it out there,
you're gonna meet those people
that are your inspirations
that are gonna inspire you even further.
And if you do it right, you're gonna inspire them.
And know your mark and know your lines, bro.
[Todd] Okay, that's right. I gotta learn. Okay.
[Jason] Ready? And action.
[Todd] That was the best one we got.
[Jason] I know, but...
Gotta get a fucking pro actor in there, man.
Somebody who knows something.