“Skating is always at the forefront of great energy”: A tour of Paris with Atiba Jefferson and Vans

On a balmy evening in mid-June, a crowd gathered in the shadow of the Sacré Coeur in Montmartre for a spectacular event fusing skateboarding, art and music, all hosted by Vans. The skateboarding shoe brand brought together the vibrant hype of Paris Fashion Week with Euros hysteria and the carnivalesque atmosphere of the annual world music celebration Fête de la Musique for a week-long cultural celebration. This culminated in a Friday night bash, which saw all the capital’s coolest citizens take over the iconic Parisian landmark.

Bringing together the skateboarding, fashion, art and entertainment communities, Vans, in collaboration with Playlab, Inc, installed a large-scale skate bowl at the foot of the Sacré Coeur. The crowd was treated to a live skate exhibition, while the likes of Kaytranada, Justice, Venus X, Busy P and Tatyana Jane took to the decks overlooking the Paris skyline. Celebrating Vans’ product design, its dedication to art and design, and most importantly, grassroots skateboarding culture, the event was preceded earlier in the week by a skate jam honouring skateboarding pioneer Anthony Van Engelen and his impact on footwear design. Another highlight saw skateboarding photography legend and Vans Brand Curator Atiba Jefferson launch a new exhibition showcasing 25 years of influential moments across the sport and culture.

Earlier in the week, It’s Nice That sat down with Atiba over a Moroccan wrap and lingering hangovers in the Marais district. Looking back on the skateboarder’s career highlights to date, we discussed the sport’s natural tendency to disrupt and rejuvenate creativity, not to mention its historic connection with art, design, fashion and culture. “Skating never changes,” he says. “It’s always going to be pure. That’s what’s great about it. Regardless of the noise behind it, it’s just skateboarding and doesn’t need to be taken seriously. It’s indescribable. It’s like, how do you describe love? You don’t just feel it; skating is just what you do.”

The exhibition, titled Atiba Jefferson: Skate Photography, is presented by OTW by Vans and Architecture, the film and architecture firm founded by Virgil Abloh. Bringing to life the disruptive attitude of OTW by Vans, the show is an ode to skateboarding’s global impact on art and culture. For the show’s opening night, cultural tastemakers – including Dev Hynes, Aminé, Danielle Haim, Mami Tezuka and Anthony Van Engelen – flocked to the site to honour over 200 of Atiba’s best-known works. Spanning the mid-90s right up to the present day, the exhibition features mid-action portraits of talents such as Tony Hawk, Rowan Zorilla, Tyshawn Jones, Beatrice Domond and Elissa Steamer, to name just a few. Amongst the large-scale photographs capturing some of skateboarding’s most famous (and infamous) moments, the exhibition also features never-before-seen cut sheets, slides, negatives, video content and objects from Atiba’s personal archive. “There’s a point-and-shoot camera I used to use in high school,” Atiba says. “There’s a light box in the basement and a loop the viewer can use to look at photos. This show is amazing because it’s so interactive.”

Hailing from Colorado Springs, Atiba grew up skateboarding after being introduced to the sport by his brother. In 1995, they moved together to California, where he found himself working for all the major skateboarding publications and assisting on LA Lakers shoots. Nowadays, Atiba boasts a hefty portfolio of iconic Thrasher and SLAM magazine covers under his belt, and three years ago he became a Canon ambassador, all while shooting for commercial clients from Nike, Adidas and Converse to Netflix, Oakley, ESPN and more.

“Photography will always surprise you,” says Atiba, “because it’s progressing at such an alarming rate.” As a Canon ambassador he’s privy to the latest advancements and enjoys tinkling with new functions. “But photography can be so simple at the same time,” he adds. The exhibition plays up to this breadth in experimentation. High-contrast digital shots are interspersed with analogue 35mm point-and-shoots and medium-format polaroids. Atiba is widely credited with popularising the Hasselblad, a bulky beast of a camera often used in studio portraiture, in a more dynamic action context. Elsewhere, Atiba’s 2001 photograph capturing Elissa Steamer ollie-ing a 12-set in LA demonstrates the now-famous Hasselblad fish-eye combo, an aesthetic Atiba is credited with pioneering.

For Atiba, the most memorable photographs document those who are no longer with us. He mentions Kobe Bryant, Dylan Rieder and Keith Hufnagel, all people he was lucky enough to get to know over the years. “There’s so many tiny details that are so important to me,” he says. In particular, the design of the exhibition meticulously created by Architecture allows the viewer to adopt the swooping multi-angle perspectives needed to capture Atiba’s shots. “The cool thing about skating is it keeps you always having to be creative,” he says. An understanding of angles and an awareness of the location of the sun are essential, as is knowing when to close the shutter mid-trick. “You have to be quick because you’re basically on the jewellery heist,” he says. “You have to get the trick before you get kicked out or before the cops arrive. Being a criminal is what keeps you creative.”

Ever since he was a teenager, Atiba has been ordering custom Vans, which he calls “the skateboarder’s first shoe”. Collaborating with the brand today takes him back to his roots and to becoming part of the authentic culture that’s ingrained in the history of the sport. In this way, he sees skateboarding’s adjacent intersections – art, fashion, music – as part of the overall passion. The board is art, the magazines are photography, the videos are film, the soundtrack is music. “All of it intersects,” he says. As for fashion, “People don’t realise skaters dress that way because it’s functional,” Atiba says. “The thing about skaters is we’re in the streets. We’re literally lying in the gutter to get an angle of the city. Skaters go to cities. They become part of that culture and what’s cool in those cities. So I think skating is always at the forefront of great energy, because it’s always derived from the city.”