Dean "Blotto" Gray

BURTON SNOWBOARDS PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Every month, Cream hands the mic to someone who's actually shaped the culture. First up: Blotto — the guy behind more Burton catalog spreads, ad campaigns, and rider portfolios than almost anyone alive.

He picked up a camera out of necessity, shooting product photos for a small snowboard shop because there was no budget for a real photographer. Burton hired him in 1999, and he's been on the road roughly 300 days a year ever since — halfpipe decks, Alaskan heli-drops, and street missions from Tokyo to San Francisco.

The nickname goes back further than snowboarding: he picked it up skateboarding in Phoenix, long before Burton, long before the Good Book catalogs, long before 25-plus years of being the eye behind the sport's biggest names.

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