For the life of me I can't recall what I even started to write these blogs. Maybe it was that the thoughts in my head are life changing and full of inspiration and wisdom.... highly unlikely. Could it have been that I am some prophet-like wordsmith whose words will stand the test of time? It'd be rad but yet again...highly unlikely.
Well, whatever the reason is, the words get typed, they get posted and with any luck... someone reads them before they're lost in the interweb. The idea of having some sort of continuity or overlying theme in these posts is absurd and wicked difficult, so a random thought or photograph will have to do. I mean after all is said and done, that's pretty much what I'm about. Random thoughts and photographs.
This shot was the culmination of a few different pieces. The first being that it is basically mission impossible to try and skate the government center plaza. The second was the feeling of freedom that can be had when riding a skateboard, or doing anything you love doing for that matter. Since skating wasn't and it just didn't seem worth it to piss off the very proud and diligent security guards, I told my friend Grady to start to toss his board in the air. At first he looked at me with an expression that was: "WTF?", followed by "this dude might be crazy" then to "alright, lets see where this goes." Since I just spent 10 minutes shooting Grady blindly play one handed catch over a fountain (his idea), he played along.
To me, the image conveys freedom. Freedom to do what you enjoy doing, freedom of expression or what have you. There is a sense of anonymity, which allows people to easily put themselves the the shoes of (Grady) in the imageWith skateboarding in particular, there is a helluva lot of freedom that goes into it... you can do it any place, any time with anyone...who skates, or doesn't...whatever. There is also a sense of being able to simply let go and just enjoy whatever the hell it is you're doing at that moment. Or, it is just a picture of some dudes hand and a skateboard. It's up to you.