I’ve been waiting for this event—King of Concrete—for months now. It’s happening here at Southsea Skatepark in Portsmouth. It is special for me because it was in this very same place where I shot the BMX riders last year, and they introduced me to their world. I saw things that made my jaw drop—they inspired me to be there again, getting shots of them doing tricks, which is immensely difficult and mind-blowing.
This time, however, it was more about the progress for me, to see how much I’d grown since last time. It seems a lot happened in the year, and this period has been enormously formative in my development as a photographer. For one, I discovered my ‘niche’, I feel very comfortable taking portraits. I also found my style, a documentarian approach with a continuing narrative, to tell the story in just one shot.
As I shot, I tried to show what I was seeing and what I felt and how I felt it, as it happened – and I hope that, in these nearly 200 pictures, you can feel the energy and the people and the emotion of this King of Concrete 2024.
