‘I liked the feeling you get from a still photo way more, a one frame story.’
Frederick Walker
January 2025
Where are you from?
I’m from a little village called Lellens, in the province of Groningen. located in the north of the Netherlands. It’s one street with some houses on both sides of it, I think there are roughly 80 people living there. I moved to Groningen, (the capital city which is called the same as the province) when I was 21, I think, and lived there for some time. But for the last five years I have been living in Amsterdam.
Assuming you started off skateboarding, at what point did you move to photography and why?
I started skating when I was around 15 years old. What got me started was THPS2, and with each character you’d unlock a small video after you finish the levels, and I was so amazed by it, the editing, the tricks, the music, just everything. So actually, I started out with making videos because of that. But at some point, I liked the feeling you get from a still photo way more, a one frame story. An idea for a certain trick at an spot and being able to put that in reality, gives so much satisfaction when it works out.
I still make videos though, but not as much as I used to do, it’s also very time consuming. Both filming and editing, getting the music right, or just finding a track in the first place. And then spending hours on editing, watching it, hating it and start all over.
Is there one skate shot you wish you had taken?
There is one actually, Kyle Seidler shot it. It’s Ryan Lay doing a nose blunt on a picknick bench somewhere in Alaska, boats and snow- covered mountains in the background, perfect photo. But there are so many great photographers, I really like the works of Matt Price, Jim Craven, Rafael Gonzalez, Fabian Reichenbach, Samuel Ashley, Andrew James Peters just to name a few. And off course sometimes I see a photo and be like damn that’s so good, but it pushes me to go out shoot, get better photos.
You just keep on learning, and I really like that. Proudest moment as a photographer?
Getting published! It’s always great to see your own work in a magazine, always a proud moment. Been working a lot with Essay Skate Mag, had the cover of issue 11. (Thank you Sander). Got some photos in Heart, by Lucas Beaufort, a coffee table book that’s been in skate shops all over the world.
A photo of Fabiana Delfino in Mess Skate Mag. Also doing exhibitions, and seeing people show up to support you and enjoying the photos you took, really love that.
‘Got some photos in Heart, by Lucas Beaufort, a coffee table book that’s been in skate shops all over the world.’
What is your take on skateshots that have not been landed?
Can’t use them. I’ve got a whole folder filled with un-landed tricks, some really great ones as well. But if it’s not landed it’s a no-go. At some point I stopped saving them because it would just keep looking at it, and get annoyed (laughing).
Is there any post-production you do? If so, how far do you go?
Not much, a bit of cropping, some colour correction. I always try to get it as perfect as possible while shooting.
What is on your wish list?
Travel more, skate more.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why?
This is a tough one, I have no idea actually. Probably one of the photographers I mentioned earlier, but to pick one is hard. I’ll go for a group session interview with all of them.