Nike SB x Polaroid: Skate Creative
03.31.22
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The Workshop
As a skater, you’re programmed to look at things differently from the get-go. Your city becomes your canvas. Rails, steps and banks function beyond their usual uses. To push our collaboration with Polaroid further, we teamed up with Sarah Meurle, her teammate Brian Anderson and LGBTQ+ skate platform Dolores Magazine to host a four-hour workshop about skateboarding, creativity, and photography for ten promising participants.
First Learnings
Photography and skateboarding have always gone hand in hand. It allows people to creatively capture their world, and express what it means to them. During the workshop, ten participants learned how empowering this combination is.
After a lecture on photography, including composition, the role of shapes, light, and color, the group were given their first photography assignment.
Go outside and capture what skateboarding means to you.
They did exactly that — capturing dozens of Polaroids as they skated through the streets of Barcelona. With each other’s help, they snapped tricks, action shots, as well as stills and portraits that tell a story of a close-knit, united skater community.
Points to Prove
Throughout the day, Sarah and Brian talked about skateboarding’s close ties to creativity, Sarah’s passion for photography, and its role in kicking down the door for more female, LGBTQ+, and non-binary representation in skateboarding.
Brian: “Female photographers like Sarah are just so important because she is going to inspire so many other young women. Creativity is important and now it’s being reinforced more than ever."
Skateboarding Take-Aways
Back at the studio, participants got the chance to pick their two favorite snaps and present them to the group.
Irene, a skater who was part of the workshop said “I started skateboarding during the pandemic, to get closer to my daughter. This picture captures ‘hope’ and that’s what skateboarding represents to me."
As the other participants shared their images and the stories behind them it became clear that skateboarding is more than just the act of riding. It’s about empowerment, creative expression, and community.
Empowered for the Streets
Now armed with their new cameras and fresh motivation by Sarah and Brian, the crew can continue to capture what makes skateboarding such an important part of life, and hopefully inspire others to get out there and skate.
Nike SB | Polaroid Workshop
The Polaroid Dunk releases globally in skateshops and SNKRS, April 5. US SNKRS April 12.
