City 01 Skate Days, 2017. Skatepark Monte Tossal (Castillo San Fernando). Alicante. Spain. Broken mobile SMSNG, skater

Media play a crucial role in defining the identity of the skateboarder. Through magazines, photographs and posters, videos and websites, skaters write their own history, create their own self-images and produce their own self-sustaining mythology. In these media, skateboarding is often linked to other forms of youth cultural activity or expression.

There is a common focus on the notion of independence that cuts across these different forms. This is apparent in one publication I consulted, the book Declaration of Independents (2001). Here, the editors of Heckler magazine create what the book’s subtitle terms «an intersection of cultures» (specifically, snowboarding, skateboarding and ‘indie’ rock music) in seeking to document «the formation of an independent era». «Independence» here is partly about constructing an alternative to corporate capitalism (a stance that in practice may be at least ambivalent). But it is also about proclaiming a kind of personal or collective autonomy, a freedom from constraint, an attitude that is flexible, individualistic and expressive, rather than rigid and conformist.

Quote. David Buckingham. «Skate perception: self-representation, identity and visual style in a youth subculture», Video Cultures: media technology and everyday creativity, 2009.

City 00Skate days (CSKD) is a project of great scope on the world of skateboarding, raised from a vision that tries to go beyond its sporting side. I focus attention on aspects that reflect a subcultural model, very diverse moments and contexts, attitudes and signs that tell us about that experience: fashion, graffiti, gestures, local environments, lifestyles, group interaction, youth and contemporary identities. But it also opens up to other perspectives: the visibility and roles of women in the world of skateboarding, the relationship between skate and social integration based on community actions, the practice of skate in developing countries, the reinterpretation of urban culture from the expressiveness of very different local identities.

City 00Skate days (CSKD) es un proyecto fotográfico sobre el mundo del skate, planteado desde una visión que intenta ir más allá de su vertiente deportiva. Centro la atención en aspectos que reflejan un modelo subcultural, momentos y contextos muy diversos, actitudes y signos que nos hablan de esa vivencia: moda, graffiti, gestos, entornos locales, estilos de vida, interacción grupal, identidades juveniles. Pero también se abre a otras perspectivas: la visibilidad y roles de la mujer en el mundo del skate, la relación entre el skate y la integración social a partir de acciones comunitarias, la práctica del skate en países en vías de desarrollo, la reinterpretación de la cultura urbana desde la expresividad de muy diversas identidades locales.