Interview by Larry Davis.

So let’s fire it up with your name, age, where you’re at and how long you’ve been skating?
My name is Anthony Acosta, I’m 42 years old and I am in Los Angeles, California. Born and raised. I’ve been skating since 1990, so what year are we in? I don’t even know, I started when I was 10, do the math.

How long have you been shooting photos?
I started in 2003-2004 and I got my first professional camera in 2004. So I jumped in the deep end.

So you were taking photography seriously right off the bat?
Yeah I mean I always had skate photographer friends just from being in the scene out here. I had a good buddy who shot editorial stuff for “regular” magazines, but sick ones you know, Rolling Stone and stuff like that. His assistant quit on him one day to go work for Atiba so he needed help and he was just like “dude can I give you a hundred bucks and I can just tell you what to do?” So I went and I saw how cool it was, it was insane, it was a dream job. He skated too and he would dabble in trying to shoot skate photos and would ask me questions and we’d analyze photos. Then I started seeing that if he could do this, I could do this. Not in a bad way, but more of just what I know. If I could just figure out the equipment and what to use, I could do this. More and more it just felt right, I took a big loan out from my Grandma who believed in me and just went for it.

How long did it take to pay her back?
Dude it took a few years, haha. $15,000 was like $100,000 back in the day. I didn’t have a job, it was just a fortune. But yeah I was just adamant to pay her back so that was a huge inspiration to really fast track my learning. I was in debt and I just had to pay her back, so any catalog photo, whatever was needed. I remember she was just so happy I was diligent and every month I had at least $150 for her.

Do you remember the first photo you got paid for?
So the first one was a Daewon photo in a Dwindle catalog I think. It was just this muddy, dark, black and white back tail photo. Cause I always knew all those guys there and Daewon would just let me learn how to shoot photos of him. It was crazy. And then the first photo I had for an ad was Danny Garcia for a Royal ad. That was pretty early, as soon as I learned how to use flashes and put things in focus. Because these dudes wouldn’t shoot with anyone else! It was at a time where there was just not that many photographers. There was Ortiz, there was Seu Trinh, and O’Meally would be around every now and then. But there was so much going down, I just knew if I had a camera and captured it, it could get used.

Get in where you fit in. So when did you start working at The Skateboard Mag?
Dude, straight up. I was in the right position. That’s a funny question, cause it was all just such a blur. I was shooting, all of a sudden I was getting photos, and then I did a couple things for Skateboarder like a Daewon interview. I think it was around 2006 when I started for The Skateboard Mag. Cause I knew Atiba just from shooting and I remember sending him photos and then he vouched for me. I know he told Swift and Grant to try to get me some work so they were just like “do you want to get put on retainer?” and I was just like “Uh, yeah!”

Damn so you really got fast tracked?
Dude it was so fast tracked that I don’t even remember. I was just thrown into it. But that was the only option at that point, it was either learn or quit you know? So I just used a lot of polaroids, that’s what my friend taught me.

So you would shoot a polaroid before any film?
Yeah, to make sure the exposures were right because my first camera was a Hasselblad. I just asked Seu Trinh what I should get and he told me everything. So I got the flashes, Hasselblad, the fisheye, and a long lens.

What do you think is gonna happen to film in the next five years?
I just bought some rolls of film the other day for a shoot and it was $21 a roll for some color film. Then the processing is $15 bucks, then scans… You’re looking at $50 a roll, no joke. So I don’t know, maybe some people will figure out how to make cheap film stocks and keep it going. I know a few companies are coming out with new film cameras…

Are you still shooting on the Hasselblad at all? I know you built a darkroom at your house right?
I do shoot on it occasionally. That’s the one camera I’ll never get rid of just because it means so much. But I’m always changing cameras, and I do have some enlargers in my office and I’ll print some stuff every now and then. But I should break out that Hasselblad more. I was printing a lot at the beginning of the pandemic, just getting back in there and feeling good and then I started realizing that was so expensive. I wasn’t printing for a show or any real reason so I would just print and then put em on a shelf and they’re still there.

Do you have a photograph that you ever missed that you’ve always thought about?
Man, there’s so many times when I should’ve done this, or I should’ve done that. Or you shoot something at a certain spot and then you see how someone else shot there. There’s so many of those moments, I feel that is what really inspires me when I get to a spot. To look, but not to overthink it, because then you miss the obvious sometimes. I was just thinking about how funny our jobs are because I was just at Universal Studios the other day and they were talking about how they shoot inside 90% of the time because they can control their environment. And I was just thinking how our environment changes at all times. Every day is different at one spot. Different times, with a different skater, there’s cops, there’s cars, and I was just like damn dude, what we do is kind of stressful! Like imagine how easy it would be if we had a set and a fully controlled environment. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Skate photography is so cool in that sense, how it’s just an ever evolving list of variables that change.

Alright so what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Just shoot as much as possible. I think it was Reda who told me when you’re working for a company, just shoot everything. Don’t just wait and shoot the skate photo and pack up. Shoot the dudes warming up or in the van. I always thought that was rad and helped me, especially with the lifestyle stuff I’m able to shoot with Vans. But that would be it, don’t limit yourself and shoot everything. Houses, portraits, landscapes, it’s all just so fun to see what sticks, or what you can incorporate into a skate photo. I feel like a lot of kids these days are just gimmicky, or just sticking to one thing, which I guess is rad, just sticking to your style, but I also think you need to find your style too, right? So just shoot everything.

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