Ryan Mettz is a wildly productive individual. He is constantly painting, tattooing, shooting photos, skating, filming, making zines, and more every day, and he just had his first solo art show at Muddguts in March. It was no surprise when I saw that he was spending this time in isolation cranking out darkroom prints from his film archives. We caught up with Ryan to talk about how he’s spending his time, and the stories behind some of these photos.
Ville Wester, gap over post to street. This was in Old San Juan.
What up Ryan, how are you doing?
I’m alright, trying to keep myself busy.
Where have you been isolating, and since when?
I’m at my parents house in western Massachusetts. They’re stuck in Florida so the house was empty.
What do you miss most about the city? Besides the homies.
Blue park, Indian delivery, riding my bike around, just being out doing stuff all day and night if possible. Kicking it and stuff like that.
Andrew Wilson, slappy back tail outside of Copenhagen last year. You can see this lady in the window who was angry we were there. Her boyfriend ended up coming through all hyped up and trying to fight one of us for “filming his girlfriend.” He tried to get Taos video camera and pushed Shin and really wanted one of us to be looking for a fight but we were all like “Woahhh what’s good with this guy.” He ended up bailing.
What are some techniques you’ve been using to find peace during this crazy time?
The best thing to do is just chill out and not think about how long this is gonna be for.
Max Palmer, bump to bar on an ice day at a crusty spot. Just for the sake of true skateboarding and suffering in harmony.
Max Palmer, front board to front blunt. I’m pretty sure this was the make and it was a gnar, hot day.
So tell me about this darkroom and your printing process…
I was able to borrow an enlarger and a bunch of other stuff from some friends out here and set up a dark room in the basement. I brought negatives with me from the last few years so I went through all the black and white stuff I have and tried to choose which ones to print. I always wanted to have a chance to spend time printing stuff because for me, that’s the ultimate way to actually make a photo book or something fully analog. Like from actual prints, not just scanned negatives, to me that’s the coolest way. It really takes a lot of time though, it’s easy to get caught up in there for seven to ten hours a day, even more. I don’t have anything else to do so I can just wake up and do it all day and again the next day, which is pretty cool.
Ville Wester, back smith. This was in Copenhagen last year. I was mostly trying to stay out of the way of Tao and Joel Peck, who shot a really sick fisheye photo of this.
When were these photos taken? What were you shooting on?
Mostly in the last two years. Everything is in New York, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, or Copenhagen. Some stuff is on a Leica M6, but mostly a Nikon Fm2. I like fisheye with flash the best, but usually I’m just trying to be out of the way of whoever is filming so a lot of times it’s with a long lens. I have way more color negatives than I do black and white but I’m not really sure about printing color in the basement.
Mac Milsark, gap to ride between two poles. This one is a few years old.
Got a favorite from this batch?
Well the one of Andrew grinding the down flat down is pretty cool because me, him, and Max were driving around in his car, combing through random neighborhoods looking for spots and he found that rail. We went back on Sunday with Johnny and the weather was not very supportive. He did it in like four or five tries without falling hard and it was sick. I would love to get another chance to take the photo again because I have some frames where he’s in the middle of the rail and it looks sick. I was thinking it would be sick going over into the down but he launched and then 5-0’d down, which was also beast. It’s just a cool memory discovering it and then seeing it go down, start to finish.
Andrew Wilson, down flat down.
Dylan Rutheford, grind the police thing.
Have you been getting into anything else to pass the time?
Not much, just painting. Going on some drives and exploring some stuff in the woods if we can. It’s me, my partner Saki, and my brother Beans chilling everyday. We also have a dog and two cats around which is cool.
Are you dying to do a tattoo or are you appreciating the break?
I’m not dying to do a tattoo but I am starting to miss it and definitely missing the shop. I’m always pretty focused on painting, skating, and taking photos anyways so it’s cool to have time to only work on photo stuff.
Ville Wester, back big spin the channel with Tao filming.
Have you been able to skate much?
I’ve skated a lot in the driveway by myself, my brother is here but his ankle is hurt so it gets pretty boring.
Cyrus Bennet, wallride.
Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with everybody? Recommendations on staying sane?
It’s pretty good to smoke weed and everything, watch skating, whatever you’re into. I think it’s good to just skate flat and chill if you can.
True. We gonna make it?
It’s hard to say.
Max Palmer, back tail Flushing.
