SK8 in black and white

It was cold but it was sunny. That was enough to get me out of my office this morning and into the backyard again.

Our lot is nearly a half-acre, and most of that property is in the back. There's enough room for a lawn, a pool and a complete skatepark.

Here are photos from March 2007, the skatepark's heyday.


At the time, this ramp was a year old and had just undergone a major facelift by the kids. I took the photos from atop a second ramp that was built two years earlier. The second ramp is visible in some of these shots. That ramp is gone today, the lumber carted off by one of The Kid's friends to build a cabin in the Sierra.

In the years since, The Kid and his friends have replaced the plywood skin with Skatelite sheeting and improved the transitions. Amazingly, the structure is still sound, but it makes for a forelorn scene in the dead of winter.

Walking around the skatepark this morning was like visiting a ghost town or the ruins of some lost childhood. The scene was so stark that I felt only black and white images could do it justice.


I titled this image "skate porn" but The Wife objects and The Kid doesn't understand. Still, that's what I thought when I saw the magazine in the debris next to the ramp -- a relic of youthful fantasies.

This scene brought back memories of my college photography classes. Black and white says so much more than color.

What is the story behind this picture frame? What package of cause and effect would leave it discarded in The Kid's skatepark?

Day 14 of 365.