‘I could have sworn they were flying': California skateboarders

The Guardian

20-02-2025

A new exhibition commemorates skate photographer Hugh Holland, who died on 1 February at the age of 82. Holland first began photographing skateboarders in southern California in 1975, capturing the burgeoning early scene its most vibrant, radical, free and rebellious. His two main bodies of work Angels: Street, Skate, Seventies and Locals Only will be on display. The exhibition will run at Crane Kalman Brighton and online until 11 April
Hugh Holland: 'One afternoon in the summer of 1975, I was in my car, driving up Laurel Canyon toward Mulholland, when I noticed a group of kids skating in a drainage bowl. They called it the 'mini bowl'. It was small with very steep sides, and they were going up and down those banks. Out of the corner of my eye, while driving, I could have sworn that they were actually flying. The bowl was mostly below street level, so I just saw skaters bobbing up and then sinking back down out of sight'
'I parked the car on a side road and walked down to the bowl with my camera. That was the first time I saw vertical skating. As soon as the skaters saw the camera they perked up. I was immediately welcome. In those days there were far fewer cameras around so that was my 'in''
Though not a boarder himself, Holland had an ability to capture the raw energy, sun-drenched streets and effortless grace of the young skaters who defined a movement – preserving a fleeting moment before the sport exploded into mainstream culture
The series of images compiled in Holland's book Locals Only is testament to his skill as a photographic artist. Shot with a special colour film and often taken during late afternoon, the images are bathed by the soft illumination of the low-lying sun, transforming the snapshot images into carefully composed film stills
Holland: 'I used recycled 35mm movie film. This was Hollywood after all. It was low cost, but I came to appreciate the way it looked. I did it to save money and it was convenient since the lab was near my house, but I think it looks nice and 'retro'. It gets grainy when you push it, and I did a lot of push processing for late in the day and for the action. The film had a warm, soft quality to it – not out of focus, not blurred, but soft. It was kind of perfect for the times'
From capturing the everyday social interactions of groups of skateboarding kids from Kenter Canyon and Brentwood, to the notorious Z-Boys and now famous names of the sport, such as Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta, Holland's fervent enthusiasm for the energy of the scene quickly certified his acceptance within the community
Holland: 'I love the images more and more as time goes by. The work I did during that brief time now looks to me like something amazing. A huge pile of beautiful images. Little did I know that what I was doing then, just because it was fun, would be such an attraction. I was in the right place at the right time'
Holland: 'I started loving wide-angle lenses. Not only for the closeups but also for the wide shots. It makes for lots of drama … with limbs flying out and boards flying everywhere'
Holland: 'When I look at the pictures, I can tell which ones are from 1975, 76 and 77 just by the way they're dressed, the surroundings and what kind of skating they're doing. There was a big shift in three years and the sport became commercial really fast. When I started recording them, there were a lot who were barefoot and without helmets, but by the end of 1977 that was rare and most were all trussed up in gear'
Holland captured this shift at its core. His photographs immortalised a generation that rejected the mainstream and, in doing so, redefined it. The effortless style of these young outsiders – cut-off shorts, Vans sneakers, sun-bleached hair – became the blueprint for a movement that shaped fashion, music and street culture for decades to come
Following exhibitions in LA and New York, the work premiered in the UK at the Crane Kalman Brighton Gallery in 2007. 'The response was phenomenal,' remembers gallery owner Richard Kalman. 'We opened the show on national Go Skateboarding Day and had people queuing around the block to get in. The appeal was huge from current skater kids to dads from that era coming along to show their kids what they used to look like. Nostalgia played its part, but there was an attitude, a rebelliousness to the kids in the images which transcended both the sport and the era'
Richard Kalman: 'Hugh came over from the US for the opening of the exhibition, so I was lucky enough to spend a few days with him. He had never heard of Brighton before but quickly felt very at home with the laid-back nature of the city. He was thrilled by the reaction to his work. He was also incredibly warm and funny and generous with his time. His photographs will live on as a once-in-a-lifetime record of a groundbreaking era of youthful rebellion'