NZ Visual Diary - entry 265

skateboarders

I enjoyed the choreography of this photograph: setting up the image and performing the post-processing alchemy were equally good fun.

I had just returned some books to the Auckland Central Library. It was my one errand before I embarked on an Auckland Central walkabout. The library’s main entrance spills out onto a large plaza, which attracts all manner of street persons, people watchers and skateboarders. It being a school holiday before the onset of TERM2, the gaggle of teenage boys gathered to practice their latest skateboard moves, using the terraced front steps of the plaza as their ramps.

I stopped to watch just as the boys sat to rest and chat among themselves. They responded to my call for permission to photograph them by swarming me, so curious were they to discover who I was and why I would want to capture an image of them. A few words out of my mouth and I was peppered with questions about my background: they guessed Canada or the United States. They were eager to share the places in America where with families they had visited.

The conversation was lively, and their collective demeanour so charming and unassuming.

They were genuinely curious about me and about my craft; and they were also quite chuffed that I exhibited an abundant curiosity about them. After some extended conversation, I asked them to self-organise for a group portrait. The photography executed, one of them - Reilly - approached me and asked if they could have a copy of the photograph. I sent a JPEG via email message to Reilly a few days later, to which I received a delightful reply, thanking me for the photograph and conversation. Implicit in the tone of his reply was a grateful acknowledgement and appreciation of the non-judgmental manner in which I interacted with him and his mates.

I am sure that they get hassled quite a bit by authorities who wish to relegate their skateboard craft to designated skate parks. I have sympathies for both sides of that argument.