Book Review: Hello, Skater Girl

I backed my friend Julian Bleecker's book Hello, Skater Girl on Kickstarter and just received my copy.

Julian spent well over a year photographing skateboarding girls in Venice Beach and it shows in his photos. He not only captures some great action shots, but shots of the girls eating, laughing, etc, and as a result you get a nice little snapshot of a particular sub-culture community.

Here's a nice video he did that captures the spirit of making the book, and gives you a feel for the book itself.

It's a really pretty book that makes a nice addition to a collection of photo books, if you are into such things. I'm also looking forward to my daughter consuming it some day, not in hopes that she'll become a skater, but rather that she'll see that girls can do whatever they want - even things that some think are just for boys.

My only complaint is that I'd have loved for some of the back story (much of which is on Julian's blog) about the shoots to have made it into the book. Now, that would have changed the nature of the book itself, which is purely a photo book, so I'll forgive him for not including it, and now you've got an excuse to pour through his blog too. (As an example of what I mean, read this page, about climbing "Seal-Team-6" style into the back yard of a condemned 70's house, and it makes the photos of skating the pool that much sweeter.

Strike a pose

Steve Lacey, ex-microsoftie, now a googlite, is a pretty proficient amateur photographer... usually.

However, I think he harbors some malicious intent toward me, as he is now responsible for two of the three worst photos ever taken of me. This one, taken at CES a year+ back, and this one, taken just before GDC at the b-day party of a mutual friend's toddler, which clearly shows the state I was in in the weeks leading up to GDC, looking like a meth-addicted hobbit or something.

Steve, from now on I'm running from your camera. Either that or going all 'Sean Penn' on you!