Jeff Davis’ Eight(ish) Favorite Photos From New Book, ‘Can You Please Leave’
Friends, friends, friends.
No matter what you like taking photos of I’m pretty sure it’s universally felt that the best subjects are your friends. There’s something special looking back at the memories you made with those people you love the most. Jeff Davis knows all about that and has just released his first ever photobook, Can You Please Leave, a collection of photos of his closest friends, on skate trips, getting silly on nights out, and at gas stations the night after there was a drive-by shooting there. Jeff happens to also be the former enjoi Team Manager and Co-Owner of Jacuzzi Unlimited, so it includes an eclectic list of skateboarding heroes like Louie Barletta, Caswell Berry, Evan Smith and even a cheeky Wes Kremer sighting. All shot on 35mm film, between 2020 and 2024 the book captures the essence of friendship and good times. We love that. I called Jeff to talk about his eight favourite photos from the book of his great friends.
Can You Please Leave is now available to pre-order on Jeff’s website.
Gus Bus and Sailors, Copenhagen Open.
I’ve known Gus since I was fourteen, he grew up in a small town near where I lived. He is an enigma, he likes to have a good time, he is the centre attention without ever meaning to be and he is one hundred per cent his authentic self. It was the last night of Copenhagen Open, we were pretty over all the skate events and were like ‘Fuck it, let’s go dance’, so we went to this random bar. There were all these Danish sailors there and it was going off. It was a small bar, everyone was dancing, the bartenders were giving out free shots of Fireball, it was just mayhem. These sailors loved Gus, they were all over him, kissing him on the cheek, grabbing him and not letting him go, they were obsessed with him. This photo is how it was the whole time. If we didn’t leave with him, they probably would’ve kidnapped him [laughs]. This story is Gus to a tee, he finds situations no matter what. There is a lot of Gus in the book, it was hard not to do the whole book about Gus honestly.
Caswell Berry, Westchester, Pennsylvania.
We were on the enjoi High Wire trip, which was a twenty-day trip. We were in Westchester, Pennsylvania, we skated at Castle Bam and then did a signing at a skate shop nearby. Louie [Barletta] left the trip two days early and shit just hit the fan after, everyone was just getting fucked up. Caswell had me stop and buy this bottle of Vodka for him. On that trip Caswell told us all the trick of bringing shooters on a plane, how you can take as many as you can fit in a zip lock bag and then said, ‘I can teach you a lot of things, nothing good, but a lot’. I took this photo while I was driving the van, I turned around and shot this photo of him. He got hammered and this whole car ride he was just saying the most insane shit, it was hysterical. He has been sober for a couple of years now, this trip was his last hoorah of him drinking.
I have a photo of me with Caswell when I was like eleven or twelve, at an Osiris signing my friend’s dad took us to. He was probably the second pro I had ever met, I made him sign everything I owned, my shitty sunglasses, my envy flip phone, everything and he was so cool about it. We are friends now and have worked together for years, but still to this day I am still somewhat intimidated by him. He is the most humble dude, there is no ego with him, he is just a normal guy and that makes him so much cooler. He is exactly like what you want him to be. They say you should never meet your heroes, but you should definitely meet Caswell.
Wednesday Night with the Jacuzzi Guys, San Jose, California.
The one on the left is my favourite photo in the book, because it is crazy and the way it got framed to not have dicks in it is insane [laughs]. I had just moved to San Jose; I live alone, in a one-bedroom apartment and everyone decided to come stay for a week. All those dudes in the photo just showed up to my house and it rained the whole week, so we couldn’t skate at all. We were just drinking a lot because we had nothing to do. This was on a random Wednesday night, Gus and Joey [Marone] ended up full on wrestling in my apartment, not even play fighting but seriously throwing each other around. The fact no one complained, or the cops weren’t called is shocking. Then for whatever reason they decided to shower after. In the Tony and Nestor video, Long Distance Relationship, there is a clip of Gus shampooing Joey’s hair. They broke my toilet, they broke my sink this night but fuck it’s a good story for sure [laughs].
Evan Smith, Austin, Texas.
I worked for a drink company between enjoi and Jacuzzi shooting photos and we did a trip to Austin, Texas. We were driving and on the side of the road Evan spotted this crazy leather jacket, he slammed on the brakes and was like, ‘I’ve got to grab this’. He ran out at the light and grabbed it then proceeded to wear it for the rest of the trip. At the time we were both really into Survivor, so we just talked about Survivor the entire trip, about the alliance and how we would try and get on the same season so we could rig the entire game. I watched a bunch of it during lockdown, but he is a nerd about it. He had all these strategies on how to win. It is so epic [laughs].
Gus, Louisville, Kentucky.
We showed up to Louisville and pulled into our hotel pretty late, around two in the morning, then these dudes came out of nowhere as we were trying to check in and were like ‘Did you shoot at us?’ and we were like, ‘What, no?’. They were at the gas station and this car pulled up and shot rounds at them. That gas station is where this photo was taken. The next night we ended up getting hammered and partying, wilding out at this gas station that there was just a shooting at the night before. Here is Gus on a truckbed without a car in the world.
Joey Marone, Tampa, Florida
I had met Joey in LA once before this when he was just a random enjoi flow dude, and I honestly didn’t care for him too much [laughs]. Nothing was bad with him, but he was kind of normal and nothing really stuck out. Then we did this really psychotic trip where there were five of us crammed into a Honda Civic and drove from LA to Florida. We pulled up to Tampa after a week of driving out there, we were beaten to death at this point and Joey was also in town so he hit me up to hang out. We met up and he pulled up to the skatepark and was a totally different dude to the dude I met in LA. He had a leather jacket and speed shades on and was like ‘You guys want to go to the casino tonight?’ and we were like ‘What, no we just drove for a week straight’ [laughs]. Five hours later he sent me a photo and he had seven hundred dollars in his hand, he won at the casino and was like ‘We are going crazy this weekend, I got everything covered’ and he did, he bought everyone drinks all night, it was so rad. He would end up in our hotel room partying. He started going out painting graffiti, he doesn’t even paint graffiti, but he was just doing it as a joke [laughs]. I fell in love with him on that trip, I have been such a fan ever since.
Tony Latham’s House, California.
This was when John Dilo did the switch 5-0 at the Oakland courthouse. We drove out and stayed at Tony’s house, he lives with his parents, and they are amazing and are so down to hang out. His dad is always cooking for you, and they are just really hospitable. In the intro for Tony’s part for Long Distance Relationship, it is him and his dad smoking out of this random bong in the photo and then there is John, icing his ankles. These two photos are in the same room at the same time. Tony and his dad wilding out and John going full professional. This is such a normal ordeal when we are on trips, handling business and also not handling business [laughs].
Wes Kremer, Gus and Tony, Copenhagen Open.
This was the first time we went to Copenhagen with enjoi. We were supposed to go to Norway first, but we got kicked out because it was Covid. We showed up at the airport and customs were like ‘What are you guys doing here?’ They put us in a room and made us book flights out of there, so we went to Copenhagen a week earlier. We would see Wes everywhere; he was there early too. He is one of those dudes who just remembers everyone’s name the first time you meet him, it is insane, he is the nicest guy. It was Tony and Gus’ first international trip ever and they were just so stoked to be around Wes, so we took that photo one night when we were all hanging out. You can see the genuine hype in them, they are still kids that are excited to see their favourite pro’s.