Though I’ve been photographing skateboarding since childhood and continue to on occasion, this gallery focuses closely on a time period between 2012 and 2015: an interesting time that is cleanly seen as the period of filming for our skateboarding video, but upon reflection, acutally represents more of a monumental transition into adulthood.
Getting out of town
Illicit and the short YouTube videos prior were mainly footage from pushing around our hometown with a camera in hand. Or wherever someone’s mom could drop us off for the day.
This new project coincided with us getting cars, making hours-long drives and days-long stays throughout the furthest reaches of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Arizona.
We were independent for the first time and loaded up with sleeping bags, cameras, and gas money.
Returning to Roots
Over time, the sun-up-to-sundown trips into the bowels of LA (and beyond) with gas money shakedowns at each astronomical event — against a backdrop of record-high gas prices — became less fun.
In fact, we spent more time in traffic and looking at spots like tourists than actually skating them. See, skateboarders everywhere have flocked to LA’s famous skate spots for decades. The same stuff, over and over, in every video or Instagram clip, and it all ends up looking the same.
We started to look back at our own terrain, set outside the LA sprawl and untouched by the masses. The places we’d driven past our whole lives and always thought about skating, but never got around to it. A fresh perspective with a little bit of cleanup went a long way. For me, aesthetically, I welcomed the revelatory idea to focus on local friends, spots, and identity.
This ditch was well-loved by generations of skateboarders in Camarillo, and friends’ dads would always talk about skating it when they were kids. Unfortunately, with the development of the Andorra Apartments and ParkWest Townhomes, the old Imation ditch was cut down and rendered permanently un-skateable for the next generations to come.
The full photo story of construction here and throughout Camarillo is a continued work-in-progress entitled Field Closed for Maintenance.
Nearing the End
When we started out this project, the long trips were frequent, novel, and exciting. At the midpoint, the rediscovery and new perspective of our local area helped correct course.
Towards the end, though, all bets were off.
That perfect break between the end of high school and start of adult life expired. It was time for jobs, college, and to actually figure out what you want to be when you grow up.
For me, the future was a move up to Seattle, over 1,000 miles north. For this project, that meant setting a firm deadline to close it out.
With grown up commitments layered in, the nighttime and after work sessions also went from fun and novel to a stressful necessity as the cutoff drew closer. Crunchtime was on.
After it all
As it went:
June 1st, 2015 - footage deadline. No more going out to film, as I lock myself away to complete the final cut and get the master over to the DVD production house.
June 7th, 2015 - the big day. A celebratory BBQ at the park, and we premiere The Mob Rules to a packed local venue.
June 15th, 2015 - the other big day. My girlfriend, now wife, and I start our drive to Seattle. Just like the skate trips along the same route, the car is packed with everything we could fit. Only this time, there’s a real mattress on the roof.
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.