Hugh Holland’s Locals Only: California Skateboarding 1975 – 1978 (Ammo, 2012)

From AMMO publishing:

One afternoon in 1975, a young photographer named Hugh Holland drove up Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles and encountered skateboarders carving up the drainage ditches along the side of the canyon. Immediately transfixed by their grace and athleticism, he knew he had found an amazing subject. Although not a skateboarder himself, for the next three years Holland never tired of documenting skateboarders surfing the streets of Los Angeles, parts of the San Fernando Valley, Venice Beach, and as far away as San Francisco and Baja California, Mexico.

During the mid-1970s, Southern California was experiencing a serious drought, leaving an abundance of empty swimming pools available for trespassing skateboarders to practice their tricks. From these suburban backyard haunts to the asphalt streets that connected them, this was the place that created the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarders. With their requisite bleached blonde hair, tanned bodies, tube socks and Vans, these young outsiders are masterfully captured against a sometimes harsh but always sunny Southern California landscape in LOCALS ONLY.

Holland’s skateboard photographs were first shown at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles. Following the success of the show, his work has been shown internationally and used in fashion campaigns for American Apparel.

The book is a startlingly definitive record of the dawning of a sport and a subculture that were long ago corporatized, declawed, and sanitized. The working-class kids in these photographs were so hungry for freedom and speed that it absolutely precluded them from giving a fuck about anything else.

You can buy the book at AMMO or Amazon.

All photos above are via AMMO and NPR and © Hugh Holland.

4 Responses to “Hugh Holland’s <em>Locals Only: California Skateboarding 1975 – 1978</em> (Ammo, 2012)”

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1 Ed July 2, 2014 at 2:37 pm

I have a vintage banana yellow California Freeformer skateboard I would be willing to sell if anyone wants to recreate these moments.

2 Jay July 3, 2014 at 2:49 am

I couldn’t skate if my life depended on it & thus was a committed biker; most of my friends, however, were pretty fair skaters. I was always amazed at even the simplest of tricks they could pull, as well as some of the nasty spills they endured.

3 contradextraavenue July 3, 2014 at 5:56 pm

That reminds me of these photos I saw on weather.com a few days ago. Thought you might enjoy flipping through the gallery: http://www.weather.com/travel/spring-break-totally-rad-photos-80s-20140422

- 4 2W2N July 3, 2014 at 5:59 pm
  
  These are great. I’ll put the link on Facebook later. Thanks!