Barely Made It

Into this maelstrom, quietly at first, stepped Patrick Armbruster. A young Swiss skate rat turned snowboard photographer. ‘Brusti,’ as he was known, soon grew into one of the premiere storytellers of the sport and adherents of its lifestyle — all business on the mountain but always down for the party that followed.

“Back then, snowboarding was more of a movement, or a subculture if you like, and from my perspective, it was looser and more punk.”

PATRICK ARMBRUSTER

Brusti possesses a perfect balance of youthful stoke, creative talent, technical prowess, and a readiness to embrace opportunity whenever it comes hammering on his door. In the late 90s, Brusti’s small apartment in his hometown of Dietikon, near Switzerland’s biggest city, Zürich, became the unofficial meeting point for film crews, team managers and international snowboard royalty passing through on their way to the next powder stash or after-party. The European snowboard scene was a melting pot, and Brusti was a big part of it.

Starting his photographic career literally by accident (a dislocated shoulder), he grew to be one of the most renowned snowboard photographers and filmers coming out of Europe – travelling, befriending, and partying with the era’s stars. Unsurprisingly, I first met Brusti at an event party, both of us a little worse for wear. It wasn’t long before I’d convinced him to come and work with me as a Senior Photographer at Onboard Magazine, a pan-European snowboard magazine that, over time, became one of the most influential snowboard media outlets globally.

After several successful years at the helm of Onboard, Brusti and I decided to take another significant step forward, founding Tribal, one of Europe’s first full-budget snowboard films. Unfortunately, I couldn’t complete this particular leg of our journey together. Still, he continued undeterred, transferring his extensive 35mm photographic knowledge and raw documentary style into shooting 16mm film – learning on location and flying by the seat of his pants to become one of the most acclaimed producers and filmmakers of the time.

Teaming up with established American/Swiss filmmaker Justin Hostynek, the award-winning Absinthe Films franchise was launched in 2000, releasing annual films regarded globally as one of the leading snowboard production companies for almost twenty years. The Absinthe Films premiere tour, which included a full-sized tour bus visiting 30 locations across Europe, was, unsurprisingly, the best party in town. Between Onboard Magazine and Absinthe Films, few shooters did more to bring European snowboard culture to the masses. Brusti presented stunning Alps locations and cutting-edge riding to a global audience and invited everyone to join the party.

Snowboard photography and filmmaking have always focused on two main content objectives. Shots that encapsulate the feeling of, ‘I want to be there,’ or ‘I want to be able to do that.’ Brusti always had the ability to capture all of that but engage one level deeper to embrace the characters’ personalities and freeze-frame the scene’s good, bad, and sometimes questionable core underbelly. Like all renowned cultural photographers, the close personal bond between him and the riders gave him exclusive access. He was in the competition winner’s room for the after-party, bailing them out of jail (or they were bailing him out), or sleeping on a random couch. Positioned as a central character of the scene, Bursti epitomizes the adage of ‘on the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in.’

“It was crucial to have the confidence and respect of the riders to be part of the pack, which led to a comfort zone that enabled me to document the scene from within.”

PATRICK ARMBRUSTER

Sadly, Brusti’s time in the mountains had a use-by date. While recovering from a foot operation shortly before he launched Absinthe Films, Brusti came up short, hitting a contest kicker and suffering a catastrophically shattered ankle. Despite treatment from the best surgeons in Switzerland, the pain became so great that the ankle had to be fused. True to form, he soldiered on humping a twenty-kilogram camera pack and tripod through waist-deep snow around the world – jumping from helicopters onto towering unridden peaks in Alaska, ducking ropes to access backcountry tree runs in Japan, to climbing summits in South America while parting the whole way. Although he never complained, eventually, the physical pain was too great to continue, or at least continue full-time as a front-line cinematographer. He stepped back into more administrative duties for Absinthe Films while investigating other creative and commercial projects.

From the day he started shooting, Brusti always dreamt of producing a photo book of his original work. For the thousands of photos he published in publications globally, he kept a secret filing cabinet – squirrelling away little dustings of photographic gold in case the opportunity arose. In 2021, he launched a crowdfunding campaign to achieve this dream. After two years of focused work sifting through his collection of fifteen thousand plus images spanning 25 years, he finally released a 340-page coffee table book titled Barely Made It.

“I felt I owed this to snowboarding. I knew it would take all out of me, but I knew I had to do it for myself, for the riders and this time in snowboarding. The scanning process started eleven years ago, shortly after my ankle surgery. It took me about three months to digitize all my slides. I let it rest for some years but constantly thought about it.”

PATRICK ARMBRUSTER

Barely Made It is a swashbuckling, full frontal, behind-the-scenes, front-row seat to snowboarding’s 1990 to 2010 rock‘n’roll years. The title is all-encompassing: Barely made the plane. Barely made it to the mountain. Barely made it out of the party. Barley made it through customs. Barely made the landing. Barely made it out alive. It represents all that and so much more.

Alongside Barely Made It is a range of his best photos from the book as limited-edition fine art prints. With only three of each print produced in each size and signed, it demonstrates the exclusive quality and style he’s maintained throughout his work. Today, he operates a photography, film, and creative studio in Zürich, where he takes on personal and commercial projects. Happily married with two kids, Brusti continues to push creative barriers in every area he chooses to embark. We’ll see if he makes it out of fatherhood.

BUY THE BOOK – Barely Made It →

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