Skateboarding
Archived Gallery
Though I’ve been photographing skateboarding since childhood and continue to on occasion, this gallery focuses closely on the time period between 2012 and 2015, during our work on a full-length skateboarding video.
Beginning in 2012, just after the release of a shorter skate video, Illicit, we began filming for The Mob Rules. What was expected to be a year-long project ended up running over three years – which, as it turns out, is near the low end for a full-length skate video. Yet, as the group progressed in skateboarding, so did I artistically.
What were previously montages of footage from pushing around our hometown with a camera in hand quickly turned into hours-long drives and days-long stays throughout the depths of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Arizona. We were, for the first time as adults, fully independent and fully loaded with sleeping bags, flashes and light stands, and multiple cameras rolling.
From hopping fences and pouring DIY concrete, to dodging cops and camera thieves, there is no greater freedom than pushing around any given city and responding to environment as it presents itself. As cliché as it sounds, skateboarding shaped the photographer – and person – that I am today.