MAX DESANTIS
ALWAYS EVOLVING
The smell of incense, warm humid air on your skin, the sound of zooming motorbikes and the occasional monkey sighting. Such is the daily sensory overload of a day in Indonesia. Something Max DeSantis is very familiar with. Max was raised and inspired by this magical island chain, that grew him into a Filmer, photographer and surfer that we call friend. We got Max on the coconut wireless for a quick catch up... Enjoy!
Tell us a little bit about growing up in Indonesia?
I'm very grateful to have been able to grow up there. It's such a unique beautiful culture to be immersed in from such a young age. The societal norms you see in places like the US and Uk are very uncommon in Indo, there aren't really any age boundaries and it has you growing up a lot faster than you would normally. I really appreciate the connections that Bali has given me around the world, it's such a creative melting pot of interesting/lost people Haha, but it's truly a beautiful country full of culture and incredible people and I wouldn't change a thing about it.
When did you get into filming?
When I was 13, I broke my right leg completely in half doing an air. This accident had me out of the water and off my feet for about 7 months, during this time I had to do anything to keep my mind occupied and off of surfing. My mom had this old shitty little Canon camera that I picked up one day and just started taking pictures of stuff I thought looked cool, I never really thought anything of my pictures until people started to really like them and create a connection with them in a way that was unique to themselves. This was really fascinating to me, to be able to photograph something and have the image tell a different story to whoever viewed it is what inspired me. I feel like my style of photography is what drew me to film, to be able to tell a million stories with a million different frames all wrapped into one medium is something that continues to captivate me every day.
Probably not a bummer that your Mom runs one of the better swim brands out there eh!? Any fun jobs with Indah?
Being able to create all videos for Indah is such a privilege to me, working with my mom is incredible because she's such an inspiration to me, to be able to make her vision come to life is extremely rewarding and I'm forever grateful for all the incredible places we've been able to travel to and cultures we've been able to experience. My favorite shoot we have done would have to be in 2017 we went to a secret island in the Mediterranean sea that had originally been used as a bomb testing ground for the British army during ww2 this has left the island with a giant hot spring in the center. It's basically a jacuzzi island.
What's next for Max?
This year I'm working on a few of the biggest projects I've ever done and I'm very excited for the future!
