“I’ll never shoot weddings!”

How much of an impact did the release of Dogtown & Z Boys have on you personally? Did it re-ignite your interest in skateboarding?

“The movie was about my friends and a time that were an important part of my own life. It was made by Stacy Peralta, who was a friend and someone that I greatly admired and respected.

It was a very nostalgic and personal movie for me and represented everything that I loved about skateboarding.”

On returning from your skateboarding ‘hiatus’, you must have noticed some huge changes in the scene – what were they?

“The biggest change is that skating is now accepted and even embraced by society as a whole. I’m still amazed when I see how much skating is used to promote mainstream companies and their products. I love that skaters are now able to make the money they deserve for their talents, which wasn’t usually the case in my day.

I no longer have an intimate sense of what drives skaters today since I no longer hang out in the trenches with skaters every day. But from what I’ve seen and read about, the focus seems to be more about bigger and better tricks, and not so much skating just for fun. I also see less style overall, though many of the best current skaters really blow me away with their abilities.”

What holds your interest, photographically, now?

“After I left skateboarding I briefly got into shooting modeling photos for actors, models, musicians, and such. I also did some product photography, but that didn’t hold my interest for very long. I find myself shooting more scenic and candid people photos now. I’m keeping my options open for most kinds of photography, whatever interests me at the time.

The one type of photography which I’ve never done and never will is shooting weddings.”

[Inset: Mike McGill | June 1985]