Tobin Yelland is a bonafide photographic legend, but nowhere is he more beloved than in San Francisco’s skateboarding community. Yelland grew up in the city and got his first skate photo published when he was just 15. His reverence, not just for skateboarding, but for his fellow skaters, shines through every shot — as does the community’s unruly camaraderie.
It’s only fitting, then, that a collection of 24 of Yelland’s photographs is on display right now to celebrate the launch of Deluxe Skate Shop’s new location in the Mission. Deluxe is as much of a Bay Area institution as Yelland is; its Potrero-based distribution center opened in 1986.
The Yelland images on display at 2330 Mission St. were all captured between 1988 and 1993 — a game-changing period for street skating, when San Francisco was at the forefront. Yelland was one of only a handful of photographers working to capture it all.
It’s clear that Yelland carefully curated the images for this show to give a well-rounded and complete picture of what was happening in San Francisco skate culture during that time: Wide shots of kids gathered with their boards at the Embarcadero (EMB) “Wave.” Wallrides outside the 16th Street Walgreens. Hill bombing in Twin Peaks. Three decades later, watching these young men mastering their craft remains a joy to behold.
Even better, there are as many stationary portraits of key individuals here as there are actual skate shots. And often, these are the images that tell you the most. Whether it’s a smiling Mark Gonzalez hanging outside of a deli or a haunted-looking John Cardiel in the passenger seat of a car, these small moments speak volumes. None louder than the image of Mickey Reyes and Jeff Whitehead detained in the back of a police car. (Whitehead looks thoroughly indifferent, Reyes is gleefully laughing.)
This particular period of images struck me as a good fit for the new Deluxe store for other, less exciting reasons. In many ways, Deluxe remains married to a period of skateboarding in which women were entirely invisible (unless they were in a state of objectification). Based on my visit, the new store is currently as male-focused as skating was throughout the 1990s, despite the emergence of a new generation of female skaters who are pushing the sport forward. Deluxe describes their clothing and footwear offerings as gender neutral, and women skaters’ pro decks are featured on the wall, and yet the lone instance of female imagery I saw in Deluxe were naked women inside a book.
