Skaters and Cameras Are Always A Good Combination

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Skaters and Cameras Are Always A Good Combination

New photo journal ‘Diane’ celebrates the best part of being a skater—partying with your mates.

Clothing label and publishing company Diane have released their first photographic collective Diane’s Journal populated by the many photographers that have been friends of the label since the beginning. A favourite of skaters since its inception, and considering how rare it is to see a skater without a camera, many of the contributors are also familiar faces in Melbourne’s skate scene. With the first issue released this month we spoke to one of Diane’s many fathers Matthew Ware about why skating and cameras are such a good team.

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VICE: With the whole Diane community behind this, Diane’s Journal is more than a basic skate zine right?
Matthew Ware: Originally it started—in my head anyway—as kind of “photography collective”. Essentially as a way of putting out photographic work and whatever else any friends had in mind. The photo journal was actually construed on New Years Eve at approximately 11.30pm, during a conversation with my friend Leigh. So the whole concept of Diane was basically built around making this book. It only took eight months.

Generally, is the Diane name a homage to Diane Arbus? Please don’t say it’s to Diana Lomography cameras.
Diane Arbus is amazing—the Diana camera, not so much. But no, Diane is actually an ode to David Lynch. In both Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive there is a character named Diane whose existence is questionable. A strong name is really hard to find so I was pretty happy with the woman’s name gimmick.

There are a number of skaters featured among the photographers here. The relationship between skating and photography is so ingrained, why do you think they interact so easily?
It’s so ingrained for many reasons. Firstly there’s only two ways to record and view skateboarding (photography and film) and they’re both as important as each other, but photography is the more approachable of the two – for me anyway – and I think a lot of people are interested in at least knowing how that side of it works which leads to them picking up a camera. Secondly, being engulfed in skateboarding encourages you to study the environment around you, and because of this people seem to become more hyper observant than the average Joe.

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Can we expect a second journal?
Yes, hopefully with a mixture of five or so fantastic photographers some of whom you might have heard of and some of whom you might not have. Hopefully people still want to work with me after I came across as the biggest wanker ever in this interview.

Diane Photographic Journal is available online

Photo by Ivan Budah

IPhoto by van Budah

Photo by Jack Howe

Photo by Jack Howe

Photo by Jame Sovitslis

Photo by Jordie Halsall

Photo by Luke Garrett

Photo by Matthew Ware

Photo by Matthew Ware