Our man in The Midlands, Matt Clarke, is up next in the 2012 Photographers Stories series, stepping forward with five of his shots from the last twelve months and delivering a quick tale about each.

There’s more to follow yet – stay tuned…

Joe Marks, 360 nollie, Paris.

This nollie 360 might not hit the standards of kids expectations today but I couldn’t care less as it got me a small amount of cash in my wallet to help pay the electric bill. More importantly, it’s of one of my favorite people; Joe Marks. Anyway, this was shot whilst I was having one of my small panic attacks worrying about whether my camera or bag was going to get stolen thanks to my paranoia of being in foreign territories. Although we were skating the ramp to a disabled school whilst being told to f*ck off in French many times and been at risk of getting a bag of piss thrown at us from above, Joe still landed the nollie cab and went on to handle more business in Paris that week.

Ben Devine, frontside carve, Marseille.

I’m going to be negative about this because it’s obvious unless you’re just being nice to me by not saying it. Yes, he does get lost in the photo but what the hell could I do in a place that was covered in graffiti that I don’t appreciate. I like doing this trick myself mainly because it looks like I’m confident at skating vert when I’m actually too shit scared to hit the coping. I took the photo not realising how good it actually was, I just thought it might look nice and I’ve always wanted to shoot one somehow. I think this is what prompted the Ben Devine and the Heathen “Kickturn Formula” wheel.
This was shot after getting a lift to and then hiking up a mountain somewhere in Marseille on the hottest day ever. Whilst out on the booze the night before, we had met some locals who’d told us of this place in the hills. Pretty much up to the point where we actually saw the spot, we spent a few hours in transit and wondering whether we were going to get to a skate spot or be mutilated by the seemingly sketchy locals…

Eric Thomas, nosegrind, Derby.

I love and hate Eric. This nosegrind was a pisstake. I personally love this photo and was so hyped that I actually took a photo I was stoked on for once. But the only problem was that he wouldn’t even land on the board so it couldn’t get used. We went back three times for him to finally just do it so I could put it to rest, but he kept grinding it and not landing on his board because he was being an absolute pussy. To be fair, the spot is horrible and everything is wrong with it but it looks rad. Anyway, the third time we went back after him stressing out and leaving the spot in absolute denial that he was being a wuss and hating myself for comforting him, he finally did it.
Nice one Eric.

Joshua “Manhead” Young, 180 fakie 5-0, Derby.

The Big Push was amazing. I finally got to go on one after so many years of being envious as a youngster. Only thing was my f*cking equipment wasn’t working. So gutted, I spent half of the trip being depressed and disappointed not understanding why all my photos looked shit, then half way through we got to Derby and I realised that my LCD brightness was turned down loads and that I just needed to change some settings around. Once it was sorted I was so happy with all the photos I got, like this one of Josh. I’ve wanted to shoot something with him for a while and I don’t normally get to be a bit different with how I shoot photos. This time I could get that much sort after “from above” angle and get something I was stoked on and which stood out from the standard angle at those banks.

Will Golding, frontside crooks, Nottinghamshire.

Sometimes Will decides that the time is right and he’ll get an amazing trick on a handrail. Here it was for his ender for his explosive Get Lesta part. Earlier in the day we had been in another part of Nottingham shooting Kell’s video part ender and everyone was hyped after that so we headed over to this rail. Will knew that it was now or never as far as the last few tricks for his part were concerned. He was straight on the rail with no messing around. With some serious hype and abuse from our crew it wasn’t long before he rode the perfect one away. It’s shot long and I know that kind of shortens the rail but it was the best way to show off the steez element to the trick. Really stoked on this Will, let’s see some more rail antics in the future.