Skate photographers are also a big inspiration, he admires the work of Dan Sturt, Bartok (Oliver Barton), Antton, French Fred Mortagne, Joe Brook and Scott Pommier. “There are so many good skate photographers. They get you amped to skate and the vibals are generally fairly über with them.” After giving this list he adds a disclaimer: “I don’t know fuck all about photography. I just like the cameras, and going out to shoot things. If you ask me about the history, I don’t really know anything about that.” Having mentioned Daniel Harold Sturt, I dig for a Sturt story. They are a bit of a guilty pleasure, and it seems everyone has one. “I was pretty young when I met him. I was like, ‘Who the hell is this maniac?’ he was a pretty intimidating person. He still is. I was probably 18, and Geoffrey [Rowley] told me that I had to go out with him, that he was really good. We’d go to spots, and he’d be climbing walls, spiderman grip. He’s a maniac, but it’s good ampage to go skating with him. He has stories too. He doesn’t shut up. Like, you can’t listen to the radio, you just have to listen to him talk. He’s a rad dude. You know that ditch where Geoff has the Thrasher cover doing the backside 360? You have to hike in a fair ways through these tall mustard weeds. We went down there with Dan and he has this huge pack with like a saw, a big log-cutting saw, and huge gardening shears. I asked him about it, and he says, ‘Well the saw is for your leg, I have a friend who was walking through here and he got bit by a rattlesnake. If you get bit, and the poison gets too far up your leg, I’ll have to cut it off. And the garden scissors…’, three foot tall scissors, ‘are to cut off the snakes head so that when we get to the hospital, we’ll have a sample.” In the bag he also had Vicadin, because if I got bit, I would have to make it up the hill by myself, because he refused to carry me. All this, as we are walking down to the ditch to go skate. He’ll just tell you fucked shit like this before you go skate. He called me a week later to tell me that his friend that got bit was paralyzed for almost a year, because the poison had spread through his body and to his heart. He told me to think about that next time I went skating. To wear thick boots before walking through those weeds again.”
BOWIE AND CHLÖE Barcelona Apt. 2006
Getting back to Arto’s own photography, I ask him what he is using for gear these days. “I have a small Contax for snapshots, Hasselblad Xpan, Canon markII, Rolleiflex, Hasselhofs, a Noblex, Mamiya23 super 6x9… anything that I think could possibly amp up the atmos.” .
On any given day he’s usually got the Xpan, Rolleiflex and the FM2 with him. “I always carry some sort of image capturing device with me… I’d like to have all of my cameras around all the time, but you can’t. I really like the Rolleiflex, especially walking around the city. (opposite) JIMMY TRIBAL BIKE SLAM, 2006 “I don’t know if he ever fell off his bike while riding across America or riding from England to Morocco, but i did somehow manage to capture this moment on a sunny sunday afternoon ride on the beach. I hold this photograph close to my heart. Jimmy! Big ups!”
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BOWIE AND CHLÖE Barcelona Apt. 2006