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InspirationPhotography

Sun-drenched images of the golden age of skateboarding in 1970s California

In 1975, when Hugh Holland first began photographing the skateboarders in southern California, he had already been living in Los Angeles for nine years.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist

His interest in photography had developed in the mid-sixties as a 20-year-old living in his native state of Oklahoma. Apart from a college job working in a photo lab, Holland had no formal art education. But he spent years training his eye by shooting photographs and working with the images.

It wasn't until after returning from a trip to Spain in 1968 and settling into what would become a career in West Hollywood as an antique finisher, that he began to seriously pursue the hobby. He made a dark room and began photographing everything that came into sight. A favourite subject—from the beginning—was the figure.

Then one afternoon in 1975, while driving up Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Holland encountered his first skateboarders carving up the drainage ditches along the side of the canyon, and Holland knew he had found his subject. Although not a skateboarder himself, Holland never tired of capturing on film the beauty and grace of the burgeoning craze for the next three years. By 1978, the scene had become more commercial, and Holland’s documentation of the skateboarders came to its natural end.

Holland’s Angels series was first shown at M+B in early 2006. Following the success of the show, the work was shown internationally in London, Paris and New York, with upcoming exhibitions in Sydney and the Pera Museum is Istanbul. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, npr, and the Los Angeles Times.

In 2010, the artist’s monograph Locals Only by AMMO Books was published, documenting his work during that golden age of skate culture.

Shirtless skateboarder in red shorts riding in a concrete drainage ditch, captured from above by photographer Hugh Holland in 1970s California
Skateboarder performing a trick in mid-air on a concrete surface with a sun-baked hillside and house visible in the background
A woman in a red shirt sits on a concrete plaza lined with tall palm trees in 1970s California, watching skateboarders in the distance
Shirtless skateboarder in patterned shorts crouched on a skateboard in bright sunlight, captured in Hugh Holland's 1970s documentation of California skateboarding culture
Shirtless skateboarder performing an inverted maneuver on a sun-lit concrete surface with hills visible in the background
Skateboarder riding up the curved concrete wall of a drainage ditch with trees visible in the background, shot from below against the sky
A skateboarder holding a wooden skateboard with "Jesus Saves" written on it, wearing a red helmet, against a clear blue sky in a skate bowl
Young skateboarder sits cross-legged on dusty ground examining a skateboard, photographed by Hugh Holland in 1970s California
Shirtless skateboarder riding in a concrete drainage ditch with palm trees visible against blue sky in 1970s California
Blonde skateboarder riding a skateboard up the curved interior wall of a concrete drainage ditch, arm extended for balance
A young skateboarder performs a headstand on a skateboard during a 1970s California skate session, with other skaters and palm trees visible in the background
A shirtless skateboarder balances on a skateboard while another figure crouches nearby on a dusty tennis court beneath a pale California sun
Group of 1970s skateboarders in colourful knee pads and striped socks standing with their boards on a dusty desert ground
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