SK8 OR DIE!

May 3, 2010 8:39 PM

Photographer Travis Dove's photo essay on Skatopia, an anarchist skater farm retreat in Ohio, here. From Blue Eyes Magazine (which focuses on new documentary photography).

Blue Eyes Magazine previously.

posted by klangklangston (23 comments total)

...what the crap is a "cooperative dictatorship"?
posted by Tesseractive at 8:41 PM on May 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'll send this link to the skatepunk kid... he'll get a kick out of it....
posted by HuronBob at 8:46 PM on May 3, 2010

If he's in Michigan, he can probably drive to Rutland too.
posted by klangklangston at 8:49 PM on May 3, 2010

Man they need to rethink the spelling on that name....
posted by cthuljew at 8:56 PM on May 3, 2010

Klang... he's on your end of the landmass...
posted by HuronBob at 8:59 PM on May 3, 2010

I saw the name, and I got really excited. Finally, my brethren. I was going to get ready my rude boy suit, get my checkered shoes and head over.

It's not about ska, though, is it?
posted by gc at 9:03 PM on May 3, 2010 [3 favorites]

Man they need to rethink the spelling on that name....

is it: ska-topia, skate-opia, or scat-opia...
posted by ennui.bz at 9:04 PM on May 3, 2010

I just need to say that I would not like to see a photo essay about "scat-opia."
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:06 PM on May 3, 2010

From the front page:

We are aslo building a Gate made of BONES. So if you have any Bones to donate please bring them with you. Tell everyone you know!!!

Awesome.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:09 PM on May 3, 2010

I was prepared for this to be TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME, but it looks to be just a bunch of middled-aged dudes in denial (sponsored by Volcom and Monster) re-enacting Jackass for underage kids while plying them with shit beer. Lame, and sleazy.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:15 PM on May 3, 2010 [3 favorites]

they look like they are just piling up trash. Plant a garden you dweebs!
posted by kuatto at 9:19 PM on May 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Looks like there's a documentary, "88 Acres of Anarchy," if you want to watch the trailer.
posted by HP LaserJet P10006 at 9:26 PM on May 3, 2010

Not to be complainin', but why does Dove's site open my browser fullscreen, to then show me photos that are ¼ the size of the window? Just askin' is all.

To show you I'm not all down on this, I offer the Cupcake Cannon.
posted by netbros at 9:32 PM on May 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

The pictures are very nice. The place itself is like a commune for dirty, overly aggressive infants.
posted by aesacus at 9:55 PM on May 3, 2010

...what the crap is a "cooperative dictatorship"?

MetaFilter, Google, most of the internet. Facebook is just a dictatorship, though.
posted by loquacious at 9:57 PM on May 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

It looks dirty, wet, and weird, just the sort of place I might have liked a long time ago, when I didn't know any better.

I still like dirty/wet/weird, except not in places like RUTLAND OHIO. If I'm going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere I'd prefer it be someplace like Tajikistan.
posted by HopperFan at 12:19 AM on May 4, 2010

(It gets better: ops is Greek for "face," so scat-opia would be the condition of being shitfaced.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:45 AM on May 4, 2010

Dove's project won all sorts of awards and got published a lot when he first started showing it. Good to see it on here. Blueeyes, unfortunately, hasn't had a new issue in a long, long time, as far as I know (blocked on my Chinese internet connection, so I can't see if there's a new one now, but I think the last update there was around 2007). They always managed to find great projects to highlight.
posted by msbrauer at 4:17 AM on May 4, 2010

how is this place "anarchist"? is it actually run in a cooperative, decentralized, non-hierarchical fashion?
posted by jammy at 4:57 AM on May 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

I almost made a pilgrimage to this place about... oh, ten years ago now. Then I did some homework and, yeah, I like skateboarding and I like random piles of crap, but after I did my homework I figured I'd last maybe a day or a week or two maximum. Way too much bros and beer and runaway punk kids and lost boys.

As far as I can tell there's nothing anarchist or even remotely political about the place outside of "Skate and Destroy" which is probably how it should be.

Comparing these pictures to the video and pics I saw ten years ago it hasn't really aged well. The outdoor pipe was still being built when I first heard about it. It's looking pretty beat up, now, but it also looks like they're making some concrete terrain. The indoor kidney bowl seems to have been resurfaced, and it has more stickers along the coping.

I wonder how close the nearest hospital is and how often they receive visitors from Skatopia.
posted by loquacious at 7:45 AM on May 4, 2010

Travis is an amazing photographer with hopefully a long career ahead of him. He was CPOY in 2007 and has racked up a ton of awards since. He just finished an internship with Nat Geo and I've been told he's produced some impressive work that will be published in the magazine in the coming months.
posted by photoslob at 8:22 AM on May 4, 2010

BTW - you should also check out one of Travis's NC partners in crime Bryan Derballa. Travis, Bryan and a few other guys from NC really give me hope for the future of visual story telling.
posted by photoslob at 8:25 AM on May 4, 2010

They've set up a nice welcome sign for any DEATHTO INVADERS that happen to drop by.
posted by gurple at 11:28 AM on May 4, 2010