Jeremiah Armenta is a builder of custom motorcycles, a craft that serves his other great passion: wandering the world and documenting his adventures, interactions and meditations with a camera.
Born and raised in Phoenix, Armenta developed a sense of wanderlust early in life. As a teenager he traveled from Arizona to Hawaii to Montana, eventually crossing the country as a passenger in a semi truck. At age 18 he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Mildenhall, England. It was here that he discovered the one thing that brought stillness to his nomadic life: photography.
As a flying crew chief for a Lockheed MC-130 cargo aircraft, Armenta hopscotched from Europe to Southwest Asia, stopping at dozens of little dirt airstrips in between. And always he had a camera at the ready. “Every new mission we flew presented a new land, unknown people, and unique images,” he says. “It was a dream that I could only capture through photography.”
After his military service ended Armenta returned to Arizona, married his high school sweetheart and received his bachelor’s degree in photography from Arizona State University. He was awarded the Howard G. Buffet Scholarship to create a photo documentary about children living along the southwest border of Arizona and Mexico. He developed two raw yet empathetic photo stories on children living in the harshest environments.
After graduating from ASU, Armenta worked as a staff photographer at the Arizona Republic. During this time he rediscovered his passion for motorcycles, which were always in the background of his life while growing up. While awaiting the birth of his first child, he built a bike from the ground up. From that moment, Jeremiah’s love for motorcycles—building them, repairing them, riding them—pushed into all aspects of his life, taking him on daily journeys that recreated the feeling of unexpected adventure from his Air Force days.
Armenta’s photography is inspired by—and owes a debt to—the artists and expeditionaries who pioneered chopper culture. It also connects him to them. He feels that connection when creating an original part for a chopper in his little studio, and he especially feels it when riding a custom bike on the wide-open road.
“Open desert highways, snowy mountain passes, leading to unknown destinations,” Armenta says. “You never know if the iron horse might breathe its last breath or buck you off and life must then be rebuilt, restarted…a new breath of life on two wheels.”