I went on a random and unplanned personal mission to Barcelona. All I knew is that I wanted to shoot skateboarding pictures. I heard that Karsten Kleppan was in town. He was a newcomer from Norway. I asked if I could join him and his friends one day. I was very impressed. So I proposed that we meet up.
I had some ideas for skate spots. He was down and excited, even after reminding him that my photographic style was not so much about the new hot trick. Amongst various ideas, I knew we had to go to the Forum area, which has very modern architecture. I had never been there before. We scouted around and I spotted a lot of cool scenry. On the way to those huge solar panels, we tried to shoot a basic picture but we got kicked out by security. So we kept on going, until we got here.
This epic architecture just exploded in my face, and I instantly wanted to shoot a picture here. We were alone which was great, but we knew the security guard could come our way anytime. I quickly found this angle and asked Karsten to be quick and effective. Karsten walked to the position I told him, I got my camera out and very quickly set up. He did a bunch of kickflips, then we quickly packed up. We didn’t skate away, we walked. Seconds afterwards, the security guard showed up, but he couldn’t say anything. We acted like tourists. I knew we shot a great and strong photograph. You can feel the force and intensity of Karsten’s kickflips. It’s a basic trick, but it looks so damn good.