Above the fog’s ceiling the weather is crisp, cold and clean, a pure reward for those braving November’s inclement assaults on the west coast’s concept of winter. The Multistrada 620’s engine thrums in the bike’s lanky chassis, looking as odd in this environment as any other. From the waist up the Multistrada 620 is a futuristic interpretation of a sport tourer, and from that design equator down, gangly trail look takes over. It is style in conflict and dichotomized, to draw beauty out of such a form requires a special eye. Rising to the occasion is our special guest photographer, Justin Mastine-Frost.

Justin Mastine-Frost is a name you’ll be seeing more of, whether in our pages, on the walls of private collections across North America, or the occasional gallery. Mastine-Frost’s passion for photography and motorcycling are near equal, so that his artistry comes to this magazine’s pages is purely our fortune. Justin’s artwork is a blend of traditional 35mm photography and sophisticated developing techniques. The result is a lush visualization of the everyday world, rendered in rich colours, almost tactile grain, and stubborn realism ironically painted by the artifice of photographic process. It is a style that could become self-conscious and overwrought if it were not so consistently grounded in the reality, in this case exploring the unity of the Multistrada’s challenging design and the cold.

It seems only fitting that Mastine-Frost’s latest show, “Perspectives”, is tagged as “an exploration of the dichotomy between the urban and natural worlds”, a descriptor that could almost describe a winter’s ride such as this. The route escapes the shrouded city, finding the clarity of nature above, but also reveals the dialectic conflict between the biting winter air and motorcycling’s exposed nature as an form of travel.

“Photography is my way to articulate how I observe the world around me,” explains Mastine-Frost, “I see it through a different lens, I see the gritty beauty in everything.”