Thank You Hugh Holland

Rad. Awesome. Bitchin’. These are the words of my trade. Yeah, I’m a skateboarding lady. It’s one of my great loves. While most 12 year old girls were dressing their dollies and putting on make up I was learning how to ollie and building launch ramps in the backyard with my sister. One summer, I spent every Saturday afternoon in my local Medicentre tending to a broken finger or twisted ankle. The scars on my knees are my badges of honor.

I remember the day I bought my first Thrasher magazine. It changed my life! I became obsessed with the super gnarly ads that dominated the mag. They were covered in skulls, dragons and creepy images that made my mom cringe. These added to my increasing fascination and devotion. I plastered my room with these ads and bought everything they were selling. I was proud to rep the gear and I associated myself with these edgy, independent companies run by skaters. They symbolized everything I stood for; anti-establishment and non-conformity. Little did I know the sport was at the climax of its evolution from an underground movement to where it is today.

The rest is history. Skaters began to market themselves as professional athletes and rock stars. Skateboarding is now a multibillion dollar a year industry. It’s everywhere! When I go to a competition or watch a video or even television shows where the focus should be skating, I am inundated with the message “ If you buy these shoes, you can skate harder”, “Drink this and you will go faster for longer”, “Wear this and you will be cooler”. All I can say is for @#$! sakes! I just want to see these people skate! Has the industry that I loved so much for keepin’ it real changed into the corporate monster that I was so against? Yea, probably, but I still love it.

In 1975, A photographer named Hugh Holland was lucky enough to see a group of boys tearing up a drainage ditch on the side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. While not a skateboarder himself, he was able to befriend the locals and began documenting their sessions over the next three years, capturing the purity of the sport at the beginning of its culture. He photographed the skaters at sunset, using old negative movie film, giving the photos the warm tone that we now try to copy using Instagram. His work is amazing to me. I owe thanks to Hugh Holland for giving me something to look back on, the good old days when the sport was innocent. Well as innocent as the saying “Skate or Die”.

 

All images © Hugh Holland, courtesy of M+B (www.mbart.com).