Finding a photo book on roller skating is impossible. Well, at least it was. When we heard that Nathan Beard squeezed some of his best pics into a book we wanted to know more about this project. For his photo book “Skate” Nathan travelled two and a half years through the United States. His mission was to get as many skaters in front of his lens as possible.
Nathan says, he wanted to make a skate book for a long time but it took a while to approach it. “I knew from the start I wanted it to be diverse. The only way to control what photos were put in the book was if I made it myself, so that’s what I did” he says.
What’s and who’s inside?
A bunch of photos of skaters from different parts of the United States. “Some of the locations featured in the book are open for public access and several are secret spots spread out over the east coast”, Nathan says. While sadly some of the secret spots have been demolished or are no longer accessible, it’s really cool, that projects like Nathan’s exist to immortalize them.
On 40 pages it features about 15 skaters such as Kathleen Macias, Michelle Steilen, Kiana Maxwell or Fink. inspiring quotes and excerpts from each skater. A page in the back is dedicated to bails and fails to show that not every trick is perfect. “We are all only human after all.”
Asked what he wants people to get out of the book, Nathan says: “No one Is perfect and I think that’s an important aspect to remember when people see another skaters trick or photo. It may take one person a single run and they nail the trick and for another skater it may take weeks of attempting a trick to finally get it and even then, they can only land it every once in a while. I feel like that’s what makes this community so special. No one is built the same, looks the same, acts the same and that’s a beautiful thing, it’s what makes me so excited to photograph different skaters from all different levels. Everyone has their own unique style and it shows with each person.”
Where to get it?
If you want to purchase the book and support Nathans work head over to his website
If you want to follow his photography on Instagram, click here @NathanTB
All photos by Nathan Beard