Yann Gross - Kitintale on Emphas.is

Another one you should support...

Yann Gross in Kitintale

In Uganda, nobody knows about skateboarding as soon as we leave the slum area of Kitintale. Thirty years after its worldwide expansions, the skateboarding culture appeared in Uganda. As a skateboarder myself, I started to document the birth of this subculture since the early beginning and will follow its expansion, influenced by the Ugandan daily life context and African culture. For the last few years I have been going back to Uganda for two months every year to document the growing scene. This subculture grows every year and the idea of the project is to document the evolution in the next decade. Yann Gross

GO HERE TO SUPPORT!

P.I.Y. - Publish It Yourself, Paris

The photobook collecter and publisher Laurence Vecten, along with Laurent Champoussin have initiated an event celebrating self-published photo books which is taking place next weekend in Paris, Sept. 11 and 12.

Maison d'art Bernard Anthonioz, 16 rue Charles VII, 94130 Nogent-sur-Marne

"We quickly decide to focus on the self vibe, and work on a selection of books we love, trying to show different range of objects : from the poster to the box, the monograph to zines, the offset to the home printed, important actors of the self published scene as well as more confidential photographers, and impulsive choices too."

Books on display by:

Patricia Almeida, Maxwell Anderson, Michelle Arcila, Craig Atkinson, Noah Beil, Beierle + Keijser, Harvey Benge, Simon Berg, Justin Bland, Joscha Bruckert & Andreas Till, Dani Cardona, Laurent Champoussin, David Crespo, Jean Dolhats, Charlotte Dumas, Geoffrey Ellis, Roe Ethridge, Jason Evans, Sam Falls, Stephen Gill, Sébastien Girard, Yann Gross, T. Reilly Hodgson, Ana Kras, Seiji Kumagai, Mathieu Lambert, Marten Lange, Pierre Le Hors, Frank Loriou, Henrik Malmström, Jennilee Marigomen, Ye Rin Mok, Jim Newitt, Keith NG, Conor O'Brien, Andrew Phelps, David Potes, Preston is my Paris, Pedro Ramos, Justin James Reed, Denise Schatz, David Schoerner, Anne Schwalbe, RJ Shaughnessy, Theo Simpson & Tom Common & Ben Mclaughlin, Stéphanie Solinas, Alec Soth, Bert Teunissen, Graeme Vaughan, Wassink Lundgren, Jessica Williams, Grant Willing, Ofer Wolberger, Stuart Woodman.

You can get all the info here.

Yann Gross - Kitintale

Yann Gross

Kitintale - Limited edition 'zine, 2010

Friend and fellow Piece of Cake member Yann Gross has sent me his latest publication Kitintale. It is the first compilation of work he has been doing in Uganda with a group of skateboarders who have pieced together not only a skatepark but a social network within a community so far away from the trendy scenes which have followed skateboarding more or less for 3 decades. Yann, an avid skater himself, discovered this group of daredevils while he was traveling in Uganda. Finding a skatepark was probably the last thing he expected, but when he recognized the energy here, he put together skate competitions, raising money and equipment from Swiss skate shops and manufacturers and bringing as much as he could to thier scene over the course of several visits. The bonds which grew out of their exchange became the heart of his ongoing series of these guys and girls. The work received some due recognition after winning at the Hyeres festival this year.

Joerg Colberg posted an interview of sorts with better photos than I have above. I'm doing this from the road....

Here Yann's words, lifted from the above interview:

My pictures tell the story of the first Ugandan skateboarders, who built a skate park themselves in Kitintale, a working-class suburb of Kampala. Through skateboarding and without government help or support by any organisation, the teenagers of Kitintale have managed to ward off boredom and the negative effects caused by the poverty of their daily lives. When they are on their “Fantasy Island,” which is their skate park and their pride and joy, the skateboarders are not far from paradise: they feel freedom and a sense of community which allows them to dream and have prospects for the future.

Yann Gross

This is a large-format newsprint publication but I am sure it will find its way to a larger book project in a few years. After you visit Yann's site to buy one, also visit www.ugandaskateboardunion.org

to see more about the skatepark and the people involved with the project.