Jury 2010
Grant Brittain
PHOTO DIRECTOR / CO-OWNER, THE SKATEBOARD MAG (USA)
Fiercely independent since its foundation in 2004, The Skateboard Mag keeps skate photography, writing and graphic design as close as possible to skateboarding's raw sprit. After all, its co-owner and director of photography Grant Brittain is used to operating at the creative edge of skateboard publishing and not listening to supposed members of authority. “I had the head of the photography department at my college tell me in my first semester to give up photography, because I had no talent for it.”
Since then, Grant's photography has helped to define the seminal moments in the skate scene for three decades. His pictures of the Bones Brigade era from the early 80s, which recorded the blueprint of what the scene was to become before its boom-period, are still published in magazines today. It was in those years when skateboarders were true pioneers that ramps, pools and ditches were seen in a completely new light and kids everywhere started to learn staple tricks from pictures ripped from magazines.
After helping to start Transworld Skateboarding Magazine in 1983, he spent twenty years there as its photo editor and photographer. Famed for the quality of its art direction during the magazine’s golden period in the 80s, Brittain’s photography was published alongside creative contributions from film genius Spike Jonze and skateboard legends such as Mark Gonzales, Steve Berra and Tony Hawk.
“I’d skated since I was a little kid but I was always into art and thought I would be a cartoonist or artist,” he says. “Then when I started shooting skate photos that the light bulb went off, just like in the cartoons. I was 25 when I picked up photography and it was totally by accident. I never thought I’d be working for a magazine. I shoot skateboarding as my job and I shoot the other artsy stuff for my sanity.”
How has the life of a skateboard photographer changed since he started? “The demise of the use of film and the darkroom and the digital takeover has made shooting easier and cheaper and faster, but it has also created a load of less creative and sloppy photographers. If you can Photoshop well, you can fix up mediocre photos. I love digital, but I think a lot can be learned with the slower pace of shooting film, the pre-visualization involved while shooting film, processing film and prints in a darkroom and the anticipation of getting film back from the lab.”
For Grant, just as skateboarding keeps him young, photography also poses fresh challenges. “It’s unlike any other activity, it’s both creative and technical and it has a great history. There is always something new to learn and perfect. I am obsessed by it."
A career-defining moment for Grant was the exodus of editorial staff from TWS to start The Skateboard Mag in 2003. What gave him the energy to leave an established publication funded by a media giant to start a magazine from scratch? “I just love the style and the look of skateboarding and the feel of it. When I’m around people that aren’t skateboarders, I feel kind of weird,” he says. “And when I’m around other fifty-year-olds, I mean, what do we talk about?”
When you are your own boss, what is a typical day like? “My days are usually all about emails, contacting photographers, Photoshop, logging photos, brainstorming with staff and Facebook. Sometimes I have to put fires out and I even shoot a photo now and then!”
What makes a great photo for a self-described ‘Photo Nerd’? “It’s when a photographer is able to bring their personal vision across by way of a photograph or series of photographs. For me, it’s also a photo that makes me want to go take photos or go skateboarding.”
As for Red Bull Illume, Grant is excited about the judging process and its integrity. “I think photographers being judged by their peers is cool.”
www.theskateboardmag.com
