‘I don’t think there has been a legit skateboard photo from a thunderstorm.’
Denis Sopovic
Photographer
April 2023
Where are you from?
I am born in Halmstad, Sweden, but just recently moved to Malmö after been living in Stockholm for 20 years.
Assuming you started off skateboarding at what point did you move to photography and why?
I started skateboarding in 1986 and in 1989 I went to the Swedish championships where Tony Hawk, Ray Underhill and Steve Said did a demo at. As I wanted to have memories of this, I asked my parents if I could use their pocket camera. I also saw Martin Willners there taking some photos and there was something about skateboard photography that felt special. Being skateboard photographer is about capturing the exact correct moment of a trick.
But film was not really my thing as I was poor as a kid. So the camera was not used that much until 14 years later when I started working as an editor for the online skateboard magazine Tacky.se. I started going to contests to make a contest coverage from it and I needed photos. Instead of trying to find a photographer, I bought a digital kamera (Nikon D70) and my dream about taking skateboard photos really took off. I guess I loved it so much and took so many photos every contest that I learned a lot in a fast time.
Is there one skateshot you wish you had taken?
Pierre Wikberg took an amazing photo with northern lights up in Norway. I would love to take a photo like that with an amazing skateboarder. Or in a thunderstorm. I don’t think there has been a legit skateboard photo from a thunderstorm. I like to take photos where I use the nature like the sunset or rainbow in the background.
Proudest moment as a photographer?
When Bob Staton passed away few years ago, Michael Brooke from Concrete wave reached out to me and asked me if he could use a photo of Bob that I took few years before he passed away. Bob was an amazing person that started skateboarding in the 50s and was an amazing storyteller and one of the most warmhearted persons I have ever met. He let me stay at his place few times when I visited California. One evening he came by to pick me and my friend out. He was working as a limo driver and had his costume on him. I asked if I could take a photo of him and I really like the photo as it kind of represents Bob as a fun guy too. I truly miss him.
Most embarrassing?
I was at Quicksilver Bowlriders in 2007 and right before the finals it had rained a little bit. There where so much people there at that contest and there where big screens and it was amazing. So in the middle of the final I tried to walk down this bank at the course to get to the other side to get some more photos. But it was slippery and I fell and when I look up my friends are laughing so hard at me. (laughing).
‘Bob (Staton) was an amazing person that started skateboarding in the 50s and was an amazing storyteller and one of the most warmhearted persons I have ever met.’
Is there any post-production you do? If so, how far do you go?
I usually crop the photo and might adjust some brightness, shadows and some sharpness. But I am more stoked if I don’t need to do that at all. I think the work should be done with the camera and not in photoshop. At least with skateboarding. But I might wanna do some artistic skateboard photos one day so who knows if I might change my mind about that.
What is on your wish list?
I need to upgrade my camera for sure. But at the same time it is hard to motivate myself to do that as I am not taking photos for any magazines these days. Most of my photos end up on my instagram or for my podcasts episode covers. That might change now when I moved to Malmö as I have been out and shooting recently with one of the guys here and hopefully will do so with more people soon.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why?
I do a lot of interviews these days as I have my Swedish skateboard podcast and interviewed a lot of people. So just one person is tricky as I want to interview them all. Per Welinder is one of the people that I hope to one day have on my podcast as he has been both a professional skateboarder, stuntman in back to the future and a skateboard business guy.
‘Per Welinder is one of the people that I hope to one day have on my podcast as he has been both a professional skateboarder, stuntman in back to the future and a skateboard business guy.’
