A tip from Palomino

Rispect The Boul is Peter Fettich's debut book, documenting the Slovenian DIY scene and the community that surrounds it through Peter’s wonderful photography.

Entirely self published and beautifully presented, Rispect the Boul invites us to spend some time with the people and places of Peter's chosen scene, and share the good times and hard times that come with finding a piece of land that no one else wants and turning it into somewhere that means so much to so many. Cement burns, family, beers, nature, hard work and life long bonds formed around concrete oases that may be fleeting or may be there for years to come for new generations and communities.

Self publishing your own book means that you don’t have to convince anyone else about your creative choices or ideas that they may not be prepared to take a risk on. Much like building your own spot! Peter has taken full advantage of the freedom this brings, Rispect The Boul is cloth bound in fabric that has been skated, leaving the traces of a session on the cover of each copy. Each book is completely unique.

It’s a book that reassures you that there is good in this world and that as skateboarders we are lucky enough to be reminded of the fact on a very regular basis.

From his home town of Paris, Benjamin Deberdt has quietly drip fed one the best documents of underground skateboarders and skateboarding of the last decade and beyond through his brilliant photography and portraiture in his This Was Just Now series. The ever changing format has seen postcards, 'zines, fold out posters and photobooks featuring different presentation methods and print techniques. For number eight This Was Just Now moves back to a more traditional format, but one with what must be the shiniest cover of any skate-related photobook in history! It features Ruben Spelta, Nick Jensen, Mike Arnold, Sylvain Tognelli, Matlok Bennet-Jones, Glen Fox, Scott Bourne and more all threaded together by a Parisian night out and a rather lengthy back tattoo. It’s a beautiful little book from one of skateboarding’s most accomplished photographers.

1991 Books had an excellent year last year. Their final release from 2019 was Ramon Zuliani's excellent study of one of skateboarding's most famous spots, NYC's Flushing Meadows. Rather than focussing on the history of who did what where, or simply adding to the long list of amazing skate photograph’s that have been taken here, Ramon instead chose to capture the atmosphere of the spot. The plants, roadsigns, curbs, birds, surfaces and of course, the unmistakable silhouette of the iconic Unisphere that skaters encounter when they hit Flushing Meadows. The book also comes with a separate insert featuring stories of Flushing from Jonathan Mehring, Danny Falla, Heitor Da Silva, Rob Gonyon, Nestor Judkins and more. It’s a wonderful photographic love letter to what has been one of the most important street spots in skateboarding.

Handshake is a small independent book and printed media publishers (alongside being a design studio) based in Spain run by Rubén Monstesinos and Jaime Sebastián. They recently released PNM by the hugely respected skater Felipe Bartolomé featuring his photography shot in Paris in 2017. It comes presented in two books housed in a stamped paper folder, the first book concentrating on scenes shot in the city, the second in the suburbs. Both feature full colour photography of the architecture, street furniture, obstacles, lurkers, skaters, and skateboarding that takes place in each location. You will no doubt recognize many of the places in PNM with Paris spending the last few years in the gaze of the world’s skateboard media, but Felipe thankfully approaches his subjects in his own way. A brilliant photographic depiction of the way we as skateboarders so often see the urban world around us.

You can find all the books & zines at Palomino.