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720 (two times around) (signed - last copy)

by Andrew Phelps

Photographs: Andrew Phelps

Text: Andrew Phelps

Publisher: self published

36 pages

Pictures: 20 color images

Year: 2010

Price: 220 €

Comments: softcover, spiral-bound, 18 × 22 cm, limited edition of 100 signed copies

"It has been 20 years since I sliced a transition out of a sheet of plywood and leaned it against a wall, but thankfully photography still manages to get my heart racing from time to time. I made these images with a bit of envy, jealous of the kids who took the relics of a corporate wasteland, and with a few power tools and some ingenuity, created their own world. with those familiar, but long forgotten butterflies that come with breaking-and-entering, I don't know which pull was stronger, the desire to compose these images or the urge to push along the corridor and ride up a wall.

Nowadays my skateboarding is limited to cruising around the studio, carving a wide arc around a big yellow table in the middle of the room. It is a form of meditation for me. I can get my head straight about decisions to be made. both big and small. There is something about the flow that seems to focus my thoughts, and the occasional kick-flips wow my daughters.

It took me some years to realize it, but I have taken my unspectacular style of skateboarding with me into my photograpic approach. I was always happier with a long, smooth tail-slide than with a flailing, spinning 360. Just as now I am happier with photographs that carry me along for a while than with those that jump out and scream for attention. When I dream of skateboarding, I'm Mike McGill. When I dream of photographing, I'm Robert Adams."

(Andrew Phelps, Spring 2010)

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