Faces of skateboarding 2002-2005

In ’95 I saw Tom Penny in a skateboard video. Kickflip.

Switchflip. Backside flip. Frontside flip. Like a dream flowing: for skaters everywhere, to skate like Penny was all you wanted to do.

In the ’80s I was eight years old, looking at my heroes in the skate magazines. Christian Hosoi went so high it looked unreal. The image was undeniable; nearly every person had a presence that seemed to leap from the page. It was beautiful, both athletic and art.

In 2002 I came to Hollywood and booked a room in a crappy motel. I wanted to photograph the faces of skateboarding.I had no flashes and one 80 mm lens, some film, a camera and my skateboard.

I had one number to an older brother of a friend, and none to anyone in the skate world.

The first skater I met was Chris Cahill, one of the original Z-Boys. I’d been surfing at Venice Beach and he asked me about the waves. I said, “I don’t know about the waves; I’m from Sweden.” Then he asked what I was doing in California. I told him and he hooked me up with one of his buddies, Skip Engblom.

That initial encounter eventually led to the book Faces of skateboarding. It opened up an opportunity to witness a Dave Hackett pool session where not one turn was wasted. It unlocked the door to Jim Greco’s Hollywood apartment, where the style was truly his, head to toe.

It opened up the most beautiful opportunity of all for me: to portray the performers, the personalities of skateboarding. The artists.