On view at AR4T this January – six legendary skateboard photographers reaching back to show their favorite images in archival print form – including Grant Brittain’s personal selection from the 80s. Still Life with Wood OPENS JANUARY 7.

Grant Brittain picked up a camera at the ripe old age of 25 in 1979 and started shooting his friends skateboarding at the Del Mar Skate Ranch. The “Ranch” was a skatepark in the small beach town of Del Mar, north of San Diego, California that he worked at from 1978 to 1984, and it was there that he honed his photographic skills. After blowing massive amounts of film, he then took every photo class Palomar Junior College had to offer. And with that, he felt he finally learned how to manipulate his 35mm camera. // While at college, an influential instructor introduced Brittain to the vast world of photography, and set him on his creative path. In 1983, Grant was asked to contribute skate photos to the premiere issue of TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine and became its founding Photo Editor and Senior Photographer. // Over the last 32 years Grant has captured the best skateboarders of the last three decades many of his photos have become classics. He has also taught some of the best skate photographers, past and present, and helped them develop their own work. He hopes that they have gotten as much inspiration from him as he gets from them. // Over the years Brittain’s personal work- abstracts, portraits, landscapes and travel images seems to draw from the opposite energy of his action images. His “off hours” are consumed by a search for calmer and more serene subjects. Still lakes at night and solitary desert forms are among the subjects of his diverse personal work. Some of his portraits of well-known athletes even manage to divulge a more reflective side of their personalities. // Few photographers have pursued so wide a range of subjects and styles. But few individuals find themselves so central to such an active community, where one’s perspective is just a notch askew of the rest, and where movement and progression is the norm. // Grant Brittain’s body of work reflects his deep involvement in an emerging youth culture, as well as his escape from it. // In 2003, Grant Brittain, Dave Swift, Atiba Jefferson and Jon Humphries and a group of the skateboarding elite talent left TWS and started The Skateboard Mag, where they all thrive creatively to this day. — Miki Vuckovich

4-Question Interview with Grant Brittain:

1. How did you choose the photos for this show?
Brittain: I always get nervous when it comes time to select the photos for a show. I spend a lot of time going back and forth between photographs, “Should I run the classics, newer stuff, portraits, lifestyle?” Choosing for this show was a bit easier in my decision making knowing that James Cassimus, one of my favorite photographers from the 70s was showing his stuff. I don’t know which photos King James is exhibiting, but I know they will be the photos I studied for hours when I was teaching myself to shoot photos. So, using James’ photos as a base I decided to think of this show as a timeline for four decades of skate photography, with mine pretty much falling into the 1980s. I ended up picking some of my favorite classic shots of  the 80s and beyond and Skater icons, The Bones Brigade, Mark Gonzales, Chris Miller, Natas Kaupas, Mike Smith and Christian Hosoi.

2. Is there anything about you that we’ll see in this show that some people might not know about you?
Brittain: I think these photos pretty much show my 80s photographic style, which come to think of it isn’t much different from my 2011 style. I have always tried to simplify my shots down to the basics, nothing fancy, just good clean images, isolating the action with minimal distractions.

3. I love Miki’s line about your personal work seeming “to draw from the opposite energy” of your action shots – will we get to see what he means?
Brittain: No, I decided to only show my skate photography, the other non-skate photos are personal and I just want gallery visitors to enjoy some great skateboarding through the eyes and cameras of some amazing photographers.

4. Together you make an insanely solid group photography show. Have you shared wall space with these guys before?
Brittain: I have been in a couple of shows with all the photographers in this one. James Cassimus was one of my predecessors and I used to fan out on him when I was starting and he was The Man, and then I worked with him at TWS and became friends with him and I would be sitting there thinking, “I’m hanging out with Cassimus!”  I am friends with Miki who is one of my oldest friends from Del Mar and we have worked together for years, Dave Swift, one of my best friends and business partner at The Skateboard Mag, Atiba Jefferson, was my assistant at the old mag and became an icon in skate photography and also a partner in The Mag and Jon Humphries, a staff photographer with us and probably one of the best and most respected photogs in skateboarding. So, I get to be in an unbelievable show with my heroes and my peers.

Miller by Grant Brittain