Book Description
"An amazingly vivid documentary that runs the full gamut from exhilaration to devastation, and back. It's more exhilarating than not, though, because it is about how kids invent their own lives, whatever life has handed them."
—Luc Sante
"We Skate Hardcore points to a very hard reality. Cianni's photographs bear faces of an enduring working class, the people of "Los Sures" in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You see their desire for life, family, home, and community, to move forward and become someone. You also see in these bold as well as intimate portraits, scenes, action shots, and still video sequences, the life, blood, spirit, conscience, pride, and zeal of young in-line skaters and their tribes."
—Juan Sanchez, Hunter College
The stunning photographs of We Skate Hardcore reveal the determination, the dreams, and the rough and tumble story of urban Latino youth coming of age in New York City. Vincent Cianni spent eight years photographing and documenting a group of Latino in-line skaters in the Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Cianni weaves together images of the skaters with their own words, showing the the skaters' struggles to find a place to skate and build skate parks, and just to survive in the city. In the evacuated industrial spaces of their neighborhood, the skaters carve out places for enjoying their sport and showing off their skills—often thwarting established rules and authority figures in the process. Their stories are both personal and resonant; they reflect the trials and tenacity of a young urban culture, as well as life in Southside's Latino community. In addition to black and white and color photos, We Skate Hardcore includes a DVD with footage of the skaters featured in the book, as well as additional photographs and an essay.
We Skate Hardcore, with its verve and youthful energy, will especially appeal to photographers, those interested in urban studies and adolescence, New Yorkers, and in-line skaters and extreme sports enthusiasts everywhere.
WE SKATE HARDCORE
Art Exhibition Schedule
Sep 1–Sep 19, 2004
Brooklyn, NY–Williamsburg Art Nexus
late September–early October 2004
Museum of the City of New York
September 2004
Laurence Miller Gallery, New York
Oct 9–Nov 30, 2004
Minnesota Center for Photography
Nov 2004–Jan 2005
Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA
Spring 2005
Fullerton Museum, San Bernadino, CA
