Before there was photography there was skateboarding. Before that it was something else, but there has always been something that I’ve given all of myself to. Nothing before or since has captured the intensity and fullness of my being that skateboarding did for twelve or so years of my life. In school, I was basically considered a special needs student because I couldn’t divide my attention from visualizing skate tricks for long enough to say, take a test or read a text book. I was not alone in this. The group of friends that I shared this passion with, were similarly one track minded. Many of them dropped out of high school. Not for apathy or lack of ambition, quite the opposite actually. It was the ambition, albeit short sited, to push themselves in skateboarding that prompted the decision. The title Kids of Hate and Love comes from this range of emotion and intensity that comes with being young and passionate.
In the decade plus that this project spans, my life has transitioned in countless ways, as have the lives of those I’ve documented along the way. It was a natural first foray into documentary photography as I started to drift away from the life of a skateboarder and reflect on how the culture had shaped me in ways that I appreciated and also resented. And even as I found passion and success in photography it would take many years to fully except the fading of my dreams and goals for skateboarding. Some of my friends still haven’t.
The relationships have persevered, and over the years I have watched each of my friends come to terms with the that same reality as skateboarding falls down the ranks of priorities. Through wedding vows or welcoming a newborn, with new interests and forty hour work weeks, through age and perspective, it all starts to seem a bit less important. It’s the act that is unimportant though. These images taken from 2009 to present are my way of remembering the part thats are important.
