Let me introduce myself, Jonathan Young, and the “United Skateboard Photography Project” to you.
I’ve been a skateboarder since the age of 4, I’m 43 years old today and I skate bowls, vert, mini ramp and street as often as I can still. I run the skateboard website Europeskate.com and since January 2013, I left the security of a full-time job as a senior international ecommerce manager for Germany’s largest coffee producer to dedicate my time and energy to pushing Europeskate.com and the “United Skateboard Photography Project”.
Skateboard photography, the photographers and the skaters have accompanied my experience with skateboarding for practically all of my life and especially during my work with Europeskate.com. In December 2012 I decided that I would like to create a website and a book dedicated to skateboard photography and the photographers to present their work to a worldwide audience. At the same time I wanted to combine this effort with a donation from the sales of the book for a charity that works with skateboarders – 100% of the revenue from the book sales after German taxes will go directly to the charity foundation!
This is how the whole idea for the “United Skateboard Photography Project” originated and the set goals are the following:
1) to create an online platform for amateur and professional photographers worldwide to present their creative skills to fans of skateboard photography around the world. The site is here!
2) to allow everyone who loves skateboard photography to choose from the selected members of the United Skateboard Photography Project photographs they would like to have printed on a t-shirt, hoodie, coffee cup or maybe even just as a print for your home. The product is shipped directly to you worldwide and the skateboard photographer as well as our book project receive a small financial support through the sale! WE’RE WORKING ON THIS NOW (September 2015)
3) to create a one-of-a-kind skateboard photography book featuring skateboard photographers from around the globe supporting the charitable foundation Grind for Life. Planned publishing date for the book: as soon as the necessary 20,000 Euros have been raised to support publishing and shipping the book
The idea for the concept has grown in combination with the Europeskate.com skateboard website which was founded in 2004 in Hamburg, Germany as an online platform to present all types of skateboarding on a regular basis in order to keep up to the ever evolving growth of skateboarding around the globe. A strong focus was set from the beginning to connect with skateboarders, skateboard companies and especially skateboard photographers and videographers to support their creative work through the platform which reaches fans of skateboarding in countries all over the world.
During the years the online article series ‘Europeskate Photo Of the Day’ which presents photographer’s photos on a regular basis on Europeskate.com has grown into an institution on the website giving the photographers and the skaters depicted in the photographs a platform to present their creative work to a large following in the international skateboard community. Due to the huge growth of the Internet social communities in the past years the possibilities to reach out to ever more fans of skateboarding and skateboard photography has given the presented photographers a fast growing and widely accepted platform to present their work on.
I started with the idea in December 2012 to stengthen and focus this community with a dedicated Internet platform solely for presenting skateboard photography/photographers and creating a printed book. Loads of work went into contacting photographers, companies and people involved in skateboarding. Well, things didn’t work out like I planned so the idea has been dormant for the last 10 months.
Now it is time to get it started again with a new concept for raising the necessary financial support while raising awareness about the project, getting as many photographers as possible on board and getting the advertising placements for the book set up.
Some of you may be thinking “advertising in a book?”. Well, to publish 1,000 copies of a hardback book with 300 pages costs a lot of money. Getting the photographers involved takes a lot of time and work to coordinate – if possible I would like to even pay the photographers money for being involved in the book. Creating the book drafts and the final copy of the book involves many weeks of work with designers, photographers and the publishing house in Hongkong. And the book needs to be marketed which – yeah you guessed it – costs money as well.
I’m looking forward to connecting to many more people working in the skateboard industry, as photographers, skaters or just fans of (skateboard) photography itself to make this project successful. Any ideas and support is needed and welcome so please use the Contact Page to get in touch.
Thanks for your support!
Jonathan Young
Contact me at : jyoung[AT]unitedskateboardpp.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UnitedSkateboardPhotographyProject