How long did you live in Philly?

I moved there when I was 18 so that was 2004 and I left in 2012 so 8 years total.
Why did you decide to move to NY?
Part of it was my girlfriend is going to grad school here so I moved up with her. But I had always wanted to live in NY at some point in my life. I just knew that from visiting.

What differences have you noticed between Philly and NYC?
There are so many things that I really love about New York and so many things that I really miss about Philly. I love the energy and motivation of people, like everyone hustling, really trying to get somewhere and everyone just seems motivated to make it happen up here. Things I find off putting are just the whole culture of wealth, and the attitude of people that think they’re cool just because they live in the city. I find that people are really selfish around here, I think the fact that everyone’s motivated and trying to make things happen also comes with people being really self centered sometimes cause they’re so focused on where they’re going. And then for sure not having the same skate scene is definitely a big thing for me, not having FDR and the warehouse to just meet up with people. It’s just a lot more divided out here. I definitely miss the park so much. It’s just easier to get by in Philly, you don’t have to work so crazy, things are more affordable, there’s less bureaucracy, less undercover cops watching you, you can find abandoned shit…

How did the FDR book happen?
My friend Nick Orso approached me and my other friend Scott Kmiec about trying to do the project, he had a publisher lined up. So I reached out to everyone I knew, every photographer who had local photos of the park. I sent them something like “hey we don’t have any money but were making this project would you be down to contribute” and I got an insane amount of things from all kinds of people, from California, New York, other countries and stuff. Then we basically just whittled it down over the course of three years, and laid it out. It was a lot of work. I don’t think I realized how much I was getting my self into at first.

Any good FDR stories?
Two stories that I like both take place right by the miniramp. They’re not even mine but I’ll tell ”˜em. A homie went to take a piss in the woods right by the miniramp and they almost didn’t notice, but they saw at the last minute someone had dug like a 8-10 foot hole in the woods and they lightly covered it with leaves. It was basically like a pit, 3 foot in diameter, 10 feet deep and if you had fallen into the pit, you wouldn’t have been able to climb out. It was like a trap or something. So random. No idea who did that or why. And the other is, once my friends were skating the mini ramp and they saw these two bums getting into a fight, screaming at each other, hitting each other. Then they disappeared off into the woods. They didn’t really think much of it, then like twenty minutes later one of the bums came out the woods like fully covered in blood. They were like, whoa that’s gnarly I wonder what happened? Then the next day cops were down at the park and they said they pulled a body out of the woods. They’d somehow figured out that one dude had killed someone else in the woods, homeless dudes.

Fav FDR locs?
Of all time? I’ll give props to Steve Faas, Delaware Josh, Delaware Adam, Smiling Ryan, Acid Mike, everybody with good nicknames, all the 50 year olds still ripping, Andrew Clark holding it down. Willy Akers, there’s lots man.

How long did you live in AZ?
Right after I graduated college I moved out there for six months. I lived with one of my best friends Dave. That was like a high point in my life in terms of having fun everyday, not having responsibilities, skating, meeting new people, and shooting photos, but I made so little money. It was when the economy really tanked. I was looking for work, especially as a photographer’s assistant and stuff, I tried so hard to find work and I couldn’t find anything. I pretty much dumpster dove all my food. I sold my plasma, like your blood you know, for 35 bucks a pop, twice a week and we ate out of the trash. I dug ditches a couple days. I would do odd jobs on Craigslist and stuff. That’s pretty much how I survived, but it was sick. It was a good experience.

When did you go to Skatopia?
Skatopia was the first road trip I ever went on. The first time I went was 2004 with my friend Delaware Josh. He showed me the ropes of traveling and took me on my first trips, took me across country. So I went there in 2004, then again the next summer, then one more time, so yea maybe three or four times while I was in college then I didn’t go back for a long time cause I was kinda like fuck that place, those dudes suck. It’s just a weird scene. But I went back recently last spring with Akers, and Dillon Constantine, Jersey Drew, a big crew of people, and it was really sick. So I take it all back. That place is still rad.

What’s it like? What was your issue with it?
I mean back in the day it was just way gnarlier, just dudes doing all kinds of cocaine, running cars straight through where everybody was sleeping, shooting fireworks straight at people. It was just raw, I think it’s calmed down a little bit now especially since Bruce Martin, who runs the place, he had a pretty major accident. It was a lot of egos, just people thinking they were cool, and vibing people out if they didn’t like the look of ”˜em or whatever, same thing like we were talking about in New York. But yea I’d say Skatopia is awesome. Everybody should see it at one point, you can do whatever you want.

How many photos you take a day?
I feel like I shoot most of my stuff when I’m on trips. I feel more inspired to shoot things when I’m traveling, and when I’m traveling I try to shoot a roll a film a day. It’s not that much but if I go away for two weeks I want to come back with 15 rolls of film. It’s not really about quantity, if I go away on a trip I’d like to come home with at least one thing that I really like. If I can get one really good photo, then I’m stoked. I know it sounds crazy like you drive six thousand miles or whatever to try to get one photo but if I come home with one thing that I really think is good, then it was a good trip for me.

Have you ever been arrested?
The last time I got a ticket for skating or even yelled at by the cops, was when I was 13 years old. I saw some cops pull a gun on a kid for skating Love, and ran away with my friend. I wasn’t even skating. I had broken my board, and got a ticket even though I had a broken board and we were blocks away. I fought it with my mom. I was like a 13 year old kid. It was a crazy experience. But dude I never get in trouble with cops. One thing I wish I knew when I was little is don’t run, don’t act guilty, don’t give them a reason to think you knew you were doing something wrong. Like the other day me and Andrew Wilson and some of his roommates were pouring some cement up to this Jersey barrier in Bushwick. We’re just mixing, troweling it, trying to do it pretty quick but were not really being sketchy about it, and this cop rolls up. I had my back to the street troweling, and they’re like “Hey what’re you doing?” I just totally played calm and was like “Oh hey what’s up I’m just building something to skate”, and they just looked at me so crazy like “You’re building something to skate?” “yea, you know, we’ve been skating this barrier so I figured we’d just put a little cement up to it make it a little easier” the one was so bummed. I could tell he wanted to write us tickets. He’s like “Are you serious you’re just gonna build some stuff on someone else’s property” and the other cop that was in the drivers seat was like,“Alright, carry on, see you guys later” and he hit the gas and they bailed. I know if I had hesitated or not been confident they would have fucked us over but if you just pretend you’re doing something right, nobody will mess with you.