Tristan Still

 A ‘pink flamingo’ is a flamboyant skateboarding trick emulating its avian counterpart, poised elegantly on one leg. Rarely witnessed and difficult to achieve except by the most ardent and talented of skateboarders – like those portrayed here – standing out from the crowd, their boards an extension of self.

‘Pink Flamingos, 2007’ explores skateboarding culture and individuals who characterise it, tracing a moment of stillness of those defined by movement, speed, flight and bizarre but effective perambulation.

Shot on an inner city rooftop, the location references the close and unique relation of skateboarder to urban environment as skateboarding is shaped by pavement, road and street furniture, reclaiming urban space, creating a new sense of ownership and freedom within place that constitutes skate culture.

Using the unique medium of the 20”x24” Polaroid camera, these poster size portraits have an image resolution shared by no other format.Intense colour and detail threatens to remove the veil of medium between subject and viewer, providing a rare intimacy with a group often rebuked.

These images are openly subjective, the photographer no mere tourist in this world, this flock of wild flamingo on an urban lake, but a deep participant as well as passionate observer. Poised, looking ahead, intently, breathing steady for a moment.