If you skate, then you’ve almost definitely heard of Michael Burnett. You have absolutely seen one of his photos, more likely several hundred of them. He’s all over the skate world with camera in hand. He’s got one of the main ingredients for being a great skate photographer: access. He’s got access to be where he needs to be to get the shot. In Burnett’s case that is pretty much secondary to the fact that his scope, tone, composition and overall sense of wonder at the visual world are all better than everyone else’s. Access or not, he takes incredible photos of whatever he shoots. If he had been skiing instead of skating then right now I’d be looking at some awe inspiring ski photos. Lucky for me I don’t have to stare at some pole jockeys doing a k5 (is that a thing?); instead I get to be dragged into the dirty, heartbreaking, physics-defying, almost religious world of skateboarding by Burnett’s images. When I’m sweating out every last ounce of water in my body trying to land a trick, bruised, broken and ready to destroy my board forever, it’s work like this that keeps me going. Burnett’s got a book coming out soon called <em>The Outskirts of Awesome</em>, and you bet your ass I’m gonna do my best to scrape together enough change to get a copy. If Portland wasn’t so far North I’d bike it up for his release party. As it stands I’ve got to keep living vicariously through the internet. That’s ok, I’ve got a board and some inspiration, the only thing left is time.
{ 2008 07 09 }
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