‘However, I still got paid, they got bad photos, and I never heard of them again.’
Robert Christ
September 2025
Assuming you started off skateboarding at what point did you move to photography?
I don’t remember the exact year, but I think it was around 18 years ago, when we were out skating with a crew and some of the guys brought a camera with a shitty fisheye, glued to the camera. It was the first time I saw someone taking skate-photos in real life. It seemed like a lot of fun, so I bought a camera a few months later and have been inseparable ever since. In the beginning, I had been shooting almost EVERYTHING that happened around me, whether it was portraits of friends, photos of landscapes, architecture or whatever came in front of my lens. Later, I got more and more focused on skateboarding, because it was the thing I loved most.
Is there one skate shot you wish you had taken?
There are a lot of great skateboard-photos by great photographers that I enjoy looking at. However, I don’t look at them thinking “ohh, I wish I would’ve taken that photo”. I’m totally fine with my photos. Maybe it’s more like seeing a spot or a photo and thinking “Ohh that spot looks sick, I wish I could go there sometime”.
Any skate photographers that inspire you?
There a lot of really good photographers out there – Brian Gaberman, Sem Rubio, Matt Price, Clement Le Gall, Sergej Vutuc, Dennis Scholz, Friedjof Feye – just to a name a few…
Proudest moment as a photographer?
That’s a tough question. There were quite a few moments where I felt proud, and I can’t tell you the one that was the “proudest”. I’m always proud when I’m out and we get a shot that we are really stoked about and that feels some kind of “special”. Of course, I was also very proud when my very first photo got published or I got my first cover at Monster Skateboard Magazine, but also other covers or articles that I was proud of. Every now and then I receive a message by other photographers or people that have started with skateboard- photography saying that I’m an inspiration for them or my photos get them hyped to go out shooting or whatever. That’s something that really makes me happy.
Most embarrassing?
The first one that comes to my mind, didn’t happen in a skateboarding context. Many years ago, the girlfriend of one of my best friends asked me to shoot photos for a kid clothing company a friend of her just started. It was a paid job. At that time my son was around 3 or 4 years old, I liked kids and thought that I could do really well with them. Unfortunately, the kids at the shooting didn’t like me, started crying and shouting. The vibe between me and the women, who run the company was also some kind of “weird”. So, the photos were actually shitty. However, I still got paid, they got bad photos, and I never heard of them again.
‘That’s something that really makes me happy.’
In your interview with Reckless Magazine, you mentioned ‘I didn’t want to go out and skate because I was fucked about the skateboard photo business, with unreliable people or simply idiots.’ What did you mean by that?
The interview was in 2021 and the things that fucked me up happened sometime right before the interview… so to be honest…. I really can’t remember, and I don’t want to think about bad stuff that happened some years ago. Maybe it was about payment, appreciation or something like that. No problems that you wouldn’t have heard of before. At the moment, everything is fine.
What gear are you shooting with?
I got a bunch of photo stuff at home but I’m mainly shooting with a Nikon plus a 50mm or fisheye and a Fuji with a wide-angle lens. Every now and then, I’m using one of my analog cameras or just simply my phone. To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of all the camera tech talk and for me it doesn’t matter if you’ve shot the photo with your new super expensive Leica or your Iphone, as long as it’s looking good, gives a special kind of feeling or whatever…
You also run a skatemag called Parallel Skateboard Magazine. Do you work on a new issue?
Fabio Schöneweihs and I published the last Parallel in 2020 and there won’t be a new issue. We were both over it, maybe Fabio a little bit more than me. We both got full-time jobs and ran the magazine on top. Plus, it was hard to make any money with it or even pay the photographers. Luckily there wasn’t any trouble or something between me and Fabio. So, we both are fine with it. However, it’s really sad that we haven’t seen each other since then because we are living 500 km apart. In 2021 I have started doing my own little zine called “whatever it is”. The third issue was released in September 2024.
What is on your wish list?
Having a nice session with all my friends and then going for a dinner to my favorite Chinese restaurant (Dong-Wu) in Duesseldorf and order the whole menu.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be?
I rather would go out skating and shooting photos than doing the talking. If I had to choose one person, I maybe would go with Tom Karangelov. I really like his trick and spot selection and his creative output.