Dan Wood Interview

Dan Wood is a Welsh skateboarder and photographer, he’s a really good photographer and has been skating since back in the day, some of you may already know Dan, some may just remember him from some of Dykie’s classic Welsh skate videos. I Love Dan’s work and felt he was a good candidate for the first Shred Wales Artist/Skater interview. Enjoy, Richy Walton…

Ok, where are you from Dan?
I’m from the suicide capital of the Uk,Bridgend

Where is your dream home?
my dream home is definately in Barcelona.

What’s your current state of mind Dan? you feeling positive or
negative right now?
i’m feeling positive but slightly confused as to what my next life
move is going to be,theres a lot of options to consider.

How long have you been a skateboarder and how long have you been a
photographer?
i have been a skateboarder for 21 years and i’ve been taking photos
seriously since 1996.

How did you get into skating and photography, did either one influence
the other?
skateboarding definately influenced my path into photography,being a
street skater opened my eyes to a lot of cool things and i just felt
the urge to take pictures of my surroundings.i got into skating after
a friend sold me a board that he had nicked from somewhere,it was
called a mad skull and had a picture of a knife going through a skull
with blood everywhere,i could’nt resist,it was sick.

How would you describe your style of photography and style of skating?
Hmm,i guess i would describe them both as non complicated and
traditional

I understand you like to travel Dan, what has been your favorite
country for skating and photography?
For both skating and photography it has to be Barcelona (spain)and for
just photography it has to be Vietnam

Could you choose some of your favorite photo’s from your journey of
being a photographer and tell us a bit about why you like them so much?
Thats a tough one,i like the one of the peruvian kids on the homepage
of my site,considering the build up to the picture was absolute chaos,
trying to haggle a price with them and then trying to get them all to
look at me,i thought it would never work out,thankfully it did and it
cost me $12 too.

Another favourite would be the one of the photographer in vietnam
taking a photo of the kids on bikes,this was such a memorable day,we
met the photographer at his gallery which was full of sick black and
white photos,,he asked us if we wanted to go and shoot some street
photos with him,he was fantastic,and great character and awesome
photographer,we got drunk with him later right there in his gallery,it
was funny. i can honestly say one of the best days of my life.i really
cherish it.

One more would be the easter island photo of the annual festival ,that
was such a moment right there.i’ve always wanted to go to easter
island since i was a kid,i just could’nt believe i was there,its not
so much the photo,but the feeling i got when i took it. stoked.

Have you ever had any major nightmares whilst skating or photographing
when abroad?
not really any major nightmares,we got busted at a spot in barcelona
one time and had our boards taken and got hit with a 60 euro fine to
get them back,that sucked a bit.

Being a busy photographer and traveling a lot, do you get much time to
skate these days?
not really,its been a hectic year involving a lot of travelling and
exhibitions,i have’nt been on my board for about 3 months,the weather
has been pretty shit too though.

What’s your most memorable skate session and why?
I can’t really be specific because there have been so many,but i used
to really enjoy the sunday sessions behind the harman motive factory
in bridgend,they were good days,oh and the swansea skatepark sessions
were awesome too.

When you first got into skating were there any Welsh heads that
inspired you? or was it just mainly big time pros on the videos?
When i first started skating it was mainly the pros on the videos that
inspired me,but as i got older and the welsh scene
grew,Pritchard,Dainton,Mike jenkins and Steve bevan were major
inspirational characters.

What’s your favorite Welsh skate video?
Thats  got to be ‘Thugs’ ,such a rad vid and good soundtrack.

What’s your favorite Welsh spot?
Haha,good question,i used to really like the bank/blocks in the main
multi storey in bridgend,everyone else hated that spot apart from me.

What your favorite trick that you’ve landed?
Believe it or not i tre flipped 6 stairs once and that felt pretty
good,it took about an hour though haha.

I remember seeing you in Dykie’s film ‘Four Wheel Dragons’ was that
good fun to be involved in?
it was great to be part of that,the great welsh skateboard
movement,Dykie has done so much for the welsh scene,he brought
everyone together.respect.

Have you got any good Dykie stories?
Man,theres just too many,most of them involve not turning the camera
on or forgetting to press record haha.

How much has skating changed since you first stepped on a board?
Its mental,from acid drops off loading bays to switch stuff on the
mega ramp in 20 years,thats proper innovation and progress.

Where do you see skateboarding in 10 years time?
Hover boards for sure,we’ve waited long enough.

Have you seen anything lately that have got you excited and made you
wanna go skate? like a new video or photo e.t.c?
i saw the new flip vid a few weeks back and that just made me want to
give up altogether haha.

Do you think skateboarders often have other creative interests like
photography, music, art e.t.c?
Thats for sure,nearly all my friends who skate or have skated are
musicians,photographers or artists of some kind,theres a huge link
between skateboarding and art.

If you never got into skating, how different do you think your life
would have been?
my life would have been very different,thats certain.i would have
probably ended up playing rugby or football like the rest of the twats
around here.

OK back to photography now, photography has obviously changed a lot
over the last few years with digital becoming so popular. I understand
your still a film shooter, do you dabble with digital and do you think
you’ll ever replace your film camera with digital?
Even though i’m a film shooter i’m not anti-digital and i do actually
own a compact digital camera which is pretty damn good.i don’t think
i’ll ever switch to the digital darkside though,i just love my Leica
M6 and my darkroom too much.

Looking at your new website Dan I’m amazed at how much good content
you have on there, some really good photos. I’m particularly
interested in the shot from ‘Peru’ this year with the skeleton heads,
what’s the story behind this photo? it’s creeping me out.
Thanks a lot,i’m pretty stoked with it.the skeleton shot is from Nazca
in peru,the place where there are those massive pictures in the desert
which are only visible from the air,although this place was about an
40 minutes drive from there,it was basically an excavated tomb in the
middle of the desert,there was about 15 tombs there all with skeletons
and skulls,it was mental.

If you could give advice to somebody who’s new to photography or
thinking about getting into it what would it be?
look at photo books, get inspired and take pictures of absolutely
everything.

Thanks for the interview Dan, all the best for 2010. All at Shred Wales

More of Dan’s photo’s can be seen on his new website danwoodphotography.co.uk