Skateboarding came into my life relatively late compared to most.  Although I should really say it became my life.  What originally attracted me to it wasn't even the actual physical act of riding a board; it was the culture.  It was just so different from everything I had grown up around in school.  To see so many people who, in any other situation, would never have even spoken to each other, let alone be hanging out on a daily basis.  There were metal heads, hip-hop kids, rockers, jocks, rich kids, poor kids, you name it, all brought together by one shared interest that has an indescribable draw to it once you've given it a try.

​

What really hooked me was the absolute embracement of creativity and individuality over anything else.  You didn't have to be talented, or be considered cool or popular to be accepted.  It was a chance for those of us who didn't quite fit in to do exactly that, fit in.  I quickly fell in love with this new world and started reading all the magazines I could get my hands on.  Through Skateboarder, Thrasher, and The Skateboard Mag, I found myself enthralled by the beauty that was conveyed through the photos on every page.  Beauty that I hadn't yet realized could exist in an activity that is so inherently raw and dirty.  This was my inspiration to pick up my parents' old Minolta X700 and start shooting C-41 color film.

​

I loved that camera as if it were my only child.  My local Walgreens changed from just a convenience store to what felt like my own personal photo lab.  I took a black and white film class in high school and moved up to a film SLR.  Soon after this I saved up enough to buy my first digital SLR, and I know it sounds cliche, but, the rest was history.

​

It's so strange that the majority of people see skateboarding as a detriment to society, a vandalous act. Those of us who understand it, who are a part of it, know it for what it really is.  It is a sub-culture that is quite literally a breeding ground for art and creativity submerged in a culture of people too focused on the daily grind to remember the youthful disregard for rules and convention that brings out the artist in all of us.  It is my goal to bring this idea to as many people as possible through my work; to show the beauty in the dirt.

Bio