Ben Gore is a professional skateboarder/photographer/filmmaker, who bases himself in primarily in San Francisco and Bordeaux. Two cities where he most commonly creates his work, these consist of specifically skateboarding and as well the lifestyle that revolves around the culture.

Ben Gore uses both film cameras and tape recorder to capture his work, this adds to the classic skate style that is associated with coverage of the sport. Within skateboarding new technology isn’t widely accepted, people prefer the original aesthetic of a 4:3 aspect radio that condenses the skateboarding into the middle of the screen. As well as the slightly motion blurred or in crisp appearance of a photograph taken on film.

I chose to study Ben Gore as skateboarding was skate a large part of my life growing up and it was something I spent every day doing for many years. The people I grew up skating with, of all ages, became like family and I feel this is something very unique to the sport and something I wish to incorporate within my project. As at one point in time skateboarding was all that I saw and it was my environment.

This photograph by Ben Gore, to me as a former skater, perfectly captures the perspective of a skateboarder in terms of their surroundings. From this high point of view, to an average civilian, they would see a simple concrete landscape, featuring a cyclist and some others seated, the people would most probably become their focus. To a skateboarder, architecture becomes a playground, somewhere that they can express themselves and their art form in a unique and individual form. Skateboarders appreciate such landmarks much more than the average person, who would simply see a ledge for sitting.

It becomes an obstacle to tackle and from experience you really do becomes part of the landscape, we see to the right of the image that the tail of skateboard fits perfectly onto the ledge. A satisfaction that can only be experienced through skateboarding and I feel this is very unique to the sport.