Gaberman.

"The whole time, the magazines acted like I didn't exist."

Gaberman did the traditional route and shot everything on film, printed everything (including color) in his own darkroom, shot with Civil War Era lenses, and overall killed it. Skateboard photography is a formula these days and we need more Gabermans and less rich kids from Arizona (check flickr.com's skateboard groups and you'll see what I mean)

This is from Gaberman's first "feature" in Transworld Skateboarding from 2002.

And from Gaberman's Skateboarder years:


And now for the nerdy art teachery shit....Gaberman uses composition to draw your eyes to the action (i.e. skateboarding) in his carefully exposed landscape photographs. Recognize (had to end on a gangsterish note).

More Tobin and a camera.

Mic-E Reyes. 1988 I think. This is the BART station at 24th and Mission(?). I met Mic-E once in Vegas with Jason Jesse. Epic Dude.

Ray Barbee. This one has great color.

An absolute classic. John Cardiel in front of the Slayer poster. This totally sums up how rad Cardiel is. This is more than a photo, it's an icon.

The Nikon FM2. Tobin's camera of choice and the camera that taught me more about photography than any other instrument. I just bought my second one (my original died years ago). Nothing feels the same (apologies to my wonderful Leica M6).  Load some Tri-X in this baby and you're set for life.  This machine shoots people.

Why?

I don't know why I'm starting this blog.  I was thinking the other night about who inspired me initially to pick up a camera.  Really, I just didn't want to be another kid with a video camera at the skatepark. So, I'm the kid with the still camera instead.  So, this is a blog to post works by my favorite photographers and maybe even write about them a little. So, let's start with a photo of Ethan Fowler from 1993 or so by Tobin Yelland: