…During his college years in Madison, Wisconsin, Jeff got involved with photography. In addition to competing in the Midwest Snowboard Series, he began shooting snowboarding. Nate Cole, Dale Rehberg, Jake Blattner, Ursula Nygaard and myself were the lucky few to have a personal photographer shooting us in our early years. After Jeff graduated, he moved west to Vail, Colorado, to live the life of a snowboard bum. He was a waiter for one week before he walked out the door and never looked back. From that point on, Jeff became 100 percent dedicated to photography. He worked for the Vail Daily, submitting photos of skiing, snowboarding and everyday life in the Vail Valley. I moved out to Vail the following year and started shooting with him. We were a team and before you knew it, he was getting shots published. Jeff would bring out the best in me as a rider. He would always want me to hit it again or do it better so he could try another angle. He would say something that made me want to work for him, and sure enough I would hike back up and do it again and the shot would get published.
—from Joe Curtes’ intro to Portfolio: Jeff Curtes