Blake Jablonski Photo

Unknown Photo Series for Premier Skateboarding / 2015

“There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1957.

Bresson is referring to a decisive moment, which he claims everything in the world has. In photographs of skateboarding, this moment is magnified even more. If you don’t catch something at that perfect moment – your image is gone. That footing on the tre flip, the back truck locking in on the smith grind, or the positioning of the arms and hands… these are all things that make or break a skate photo. When you work with analog photography, that LCD screen is gone, there is no guess and check method to find out whether you got that foot in the right spot or not. You have to trust your eye and train yourself to capture those decisive moments with confidence. This leaves some mystery in the image that doesn’t come clear until the film gets developed. You may not always get exactly the shot you were expecting, but sometimes the end result is more satisfying than the instant gratification. That’s what keeps me coming back and keeps me shooting. Like a grave stone marked Unknown, it’s not about the title left behind, it’s about the memories made along the way.