Sit back put your feet up and gain a little insight into the world of Danny Parker. He’s a proper skateboarder. He’ll happily sit on a bus for 2 hours just to skate a shitty curb in a rough underground car park in the middle of winter because its the only dry spot in Cornwall. He has no problem lying in the corner of a cold dirty street with his head staring through the viewfinder of one of his many cameras, just to make his friends look good on a skateboard. He shoots rad pictures, is super productive (started up his own skate zine Fraction Magazine), is a genuine down to earth geezer and can even bust nollie heelflip front noseslides! We sat down and asked him a few questions about his skateboarding and photography and what he's been getting up to recently. Ladies and Gentleman it is my pleasure to introduce to you the original slippin wizard, Mr Danny Parker.

Safe Danny, can you tell us about yourself and what you do?   Wasson! I guess you could say that i’m an amateur photographer and print enthusiast from Cornwall with a lifetime obsession with skateboarding. I finished uni last year and headed to Barcelona soon after with the intention of skating every day in the sunshine and shooting a tonne of photos. A broken foot threw a bit of a spanner in works as far as the skating went but I still managed to chase them shots down, albeit very slowly and carefully haha. Aside from that, I’ve been working on a limited run mag with issue two almost finished.   How does Barcelona compare to Cornwall for skateboard photography? Do you approach taking a picture differently when your in a city in regards to your setup and how you want the finished product to look?   Aside from the lack of rain haha, the sheer amount of spots in Barcelona is absolutely mind blowing. Obviously there’s a lot of famous spots but there’s so much more if you’ve got the time and the willingness to go out and explore. That being said, I’m really excited to be back in Cornwall. We have a lot of really rugged terrain and genuinely unique locations of the type that you wouldn’t normally see in a skate photo. The two are very different but both rad! As far as the approach goes, I guess you’re always trying to show the essence of the spot (if that even makes sense haha) whilst trying to show the trick the best way that you can so I’d say that the approach is the same but  the end result is usually very different. I tend to use long lens a lot more than fish eye and take a few steps back wherever I am, although sometimes it’s nice to get in real close and just let the skating do the talking!  

Its Nice To Be Out The House- Danny Parker     Who and what influence your photography and what made you want to start photographing skateboarding in the first place?   It was during my fist trip to Barca about six years ago, we went to a screening of the Phil Evans film ‘Format Perspective’ while we were there. I’d been looking at skate photos in mags since I was a kid but something clicked when I saw that film. There was an exhibition there and it was like it was the first time that I had really looked at a photograph properly. I started my own poor attempts as soon as I got home on a borrowed camera and just took it from there. The enthusiasm hasn’t gone away at all. I’m influenced by all sorts. Obviously there’s a massive list of skate photographers, people like Leo Sharp, CJ, Sam McGuire, Oliver Barton, Daniel Sturt, Wig Worland, Kevin Banks, Mike Blabac, Graham Tait, the list just goes on and on. I’m influenced a lot by American colour photography from the 1970’s and 80’s too. People like Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld. I’m not sure if you can see it in my pictures but the influence is definitely there. Recently I’ve been trying to incorporate elements of street photography where I can, probably from just being in the city. It doesn’t always work out though, there’s definitely an element of luck involved haha.   Do you have preferred method/format of photography you like to use? (as in film or digital/what brand of camera etc…)   Well I started on an entry level Canon DSLR which I still used until very recently. Quite quickly though I became interested in analogue photography also. I’ve always got a little 35mm point and shoot in my pocket and I’ve always enjoyed shooting skating with medium format. I had let it slip a bit over the last year or so but that old DSLR bore the brunt of a bad hill bomb slam about a month ago and doesn’t work anymore (I got my moneys worth ha) so I’m only shooting film at the moment and enjoying it more than ever! I’ll probably end up replacing it at some point but I’m in no rush right now.

  By the time I got over there, my good pal Max Hawke had been there for nearly a year so I just sort of fell in with a ready made crew of rad people who also happened to all shred. It was rad going on missions all the time and usually coming back with something. People like Max, Bacon, Seth Kirk (and loads more) are just down to skate and it all happens organically. It was cool when friends from the UK would come out too and were keen to make the most of a trip. That was always fun and really productive.

Any plans for the future now that you are back in the UK and is there anybody you would like to thank or give a shout out to?   I’d like to find a job that uses my degree in some way but I’m not too sure how realistic that is haha. Apart from that I’m just keen to embrace the Kern again. Skate and shoot whenever I can and continue to work on the zine. Hopefully go on the occasional trip here and there.   Yeah there’s definitely a few people I’d like to thank. Leo Sharp for all the help and advice along the way, yourself for always being keen to  huck and giving me the chance to practice so much (and for doing this interview), Nick at Palomino Club, Paul Graham at Hangup Online, Sam Roberts, Andrew Horsley and CJ for all running photos in the past and generally being rad. Everyone who has contributed to the mag! Everyone at Black Sheep, the Kernow crew and the Barca crew (massive thanks to Keys for the crutches) and anyone who’s ever thrown themselves down, over or onto something in the name of a picture!