DIY Skateboarding, Art & Street Culture
Scroll through any legendary skate magazine—Thrasher, Transworld, Big Brother—and the most memorable images are almost always in black and white. In an era of HDR color photography, the monochrome image remains the gold standard for documenting street skating. This isn’t just pretension; it’s a solution to the chaotic environment of the city.
Removing the Noise Street skating happens in ugly places. We skate behind supermarkets, in alleyways, and in parking lots cluttered with yellow lines, red dumpsters, and blue recycling bins. Color photography highlights this “visual noise,” distracting the eye from the trick. Black and white film strips away the distraction. It reduces the image to its core elements: light, shadow, texture, and form. The ugly dumpster becomes a geometric shape; the cracked pavement becomes texture.
The Drama of the Flash Skate photography is largely about the “strobe.” Using off-camera flashes allows the photographer to darken the sky and isolate the skater, creating a studio-like environment in the middle of a gritty street. In black and white, this contrast is amplified. The skater pops against the darkness, looking more like a sculpture than an athlete.
Pushing the Film The gritty, grainy look comes from “pushing” film—shooting ISO 400 film at ISO 1600 or 3200 to compensate for low light. This chemical process increases the grain structure of the image. That grain is the visual language of skateboarding: rough, abrasive, and imperfect.
