A RELATIONSHIP between skateBoarding and photography

Written and photographed by rick perez

Reckless Founder Rick Perez documents an afternoon at the Scum Hole, a DIY skate spot on the beach in Southern California. Led by skateboarders Sean Mutlu, Tiffany Cantu, Tripp, and Ruby Davis, Rick recounts a journey of determination, artistic connection, and trying and trying until you get the perfect shot.

Long Beach, USA

The sun shined beautifully as I drove down the 405 freeway to Long Beach from Los Angeles. California. My music was loud and my creative juices were flowing. A friend of mine, the artist Sean Mutlu, told me about a DIY skate spot on the beach that I had to photograph called Scum Hole. With a name and location like that, I knew I had to check it out. I was stoked.

After I parked my car, I saw Sean standing in front of his house and we greeted each other warmly. With his eccentric style, cool attitude, and artistic nature, Sean is one of the few true muses I’ve come across in my photography career. We made it a tradition to get together at least once a year to shoot and catch up and the images we’ve created are always beautiful and alive. It’s a special relationship and it was so good to see him again.

Once inside his house, I caught up with Sean’s sister Brianna Mutlu, a fellow photographer, who just came back from visiting family in Turkey. I was introduced to his other friends, Tiffany Cantu, Ruby Davis, and Tripp, also artists and skaters who were going to join in this DIY adventure. We all squeezed into Sean’s car and began our journey to the Scum Hole.

With the windows rolled down and scenes of Long Beach passing by, I got to know everyone in the car. We opened up a lot about our art, our motivations, and our communities. Sean, Tiffany, Ruby, and Tripp are all part of local underground punk scene, a tight knit collective of creatives, weirdos, Queers, and People of Color who encourage all forms of self-expression. Tiffany and Sean talked about a new band they formed, Punch Cake, who describe themselves as “Four Bad Bitches On A Sugar Shock Pilgrimage to Disappoint Your Daddy”. Goddamn, I have to go to one of their shows soon, you know they’re going to be good!

We arrived at the beach and it was wildly busy in the best possible way. Tons of families and people packed the area around the parking lot with barbeque set ups and speakers playing everything from Hip Hop to Cumbias. With my camera in hand and skateboards akt their sides, the crew and I followed a sidewalk headed south away from the parking lot. In less than 5 minutes we arrived at the Scum Hole.

The Scum Hole is a wide open concrete basin where water from storm drains empty into. It’s literally right off the sidewalk, steps from the water and surrounded by sand. There was debris littered throughout the hole, so everyone immediately started working together to clean up. I tested my lighting and tried different angles. Once everything was cleaned up, the skating began.

Everyone took turns skating up the concrete ramps, either landing tricks or fell trying. One of the things I love about skateboarding is perseverance and determination. If you don’t make it the first time, you get up and try again. And again. And again until you make it. It’s something that we as photographers do as well. We keep changing our settings and our angles until we get that perfect shot. It’s why I love shooting skateboarders, we both try until we are perfect.

As the sun was falling behind a row of palm trees, we stopped for a second to take in our surroundings. The ocean was right next to us, the air was a perfect temperature, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. People from all backgrounds were passing by on the sidewalk. Cumbias were playing in the distance as a soundtrack to the setting sun. We were in Southern California, a place many people dream of being, skating and creating art on a Sunday afternoon. The five of us expressed how lucky we were to be there, in that moment, in that place, with each other.

I headed back to Los Angeles with a huge smile on my face. Photography has taken me to so many places and introduced me to so many people. On that day, photography took me to the Scum Hole and allowed me to connect with a whole new group of artists I would have never met otherwise. Thank you Sean, Tiffany, Ruby, and Tripp for a great day. I am lucky to live this creative life.