Behind the Lens - J Grant Brittain Talks Skate Photography

I was working for TWS in ’87 and was allowed on the "Gleaming the Cube" filming set, which was located at an empty swimming pool at a nice house in the Hollywood Hills. Upon arrival, I was stoked to see a few people I knew like Stacy; screen actor Tony Hawk, who plays Buddy; stunt double Mike McGill; stunt double Eric Dressen; screen actor Tommy Guerrero, who plays Sam; cinematographer Pat Darren (Animal Chin Filmer); and skater-actors Christian Jacobs and Max Perlich. I was given a few rules: don’t shoot photos while dialog by the actors is being filmed unless I have a camera blimp (a housing for my camera that makes it silent—yeah, like we use those in skate photography), stay out of the shot, and above all, enjoy the craft services (free food and beverages).

San Diego Magazine Skateboarding Feature

I gave my designer friend, Josh Higgins, the black-and-white photo of Kevin Staab's ollie shot from 37 years ago and asked him to design a pop-art-like collab silkscreened poster for Staab and me to sign and number.

Second printing of J. Grant Brittain's book PUSH is available at http://gingkopress.com/shop/push/

The Story Behind The Push (and How It Almost Didn’t Become One of the Most Classic Skateboarding Magazine Covers)

Free Quarterly Print Giveaway of Mark Gonzales will be randomly selected on February 1st, 2021. All you have to do is subscribe(free) to my email newsletter. If there isn't a Pop Up when you go to my website, it means you're already signed up.

I know that you have seen Tod Swank's "The Push" in the single frame version. I'm  offering enlarged prints of the entire proof sheet with the whole roll of film I shot in 1987 to get that one rad photo. That photograph was the June 1987 cover of Transworld Skateboarding Magazine.