DIY Skateparks: A Global Architecture of Rebellion

Richard Gilligan was schooled at the University of Wales, Newport where he studied for his BA in photography with social documentarians Paul Reas, Ken Grant and Paul Seawright. Gilligan’s approach is more akin to large-format colorists like Joel Sternfeld, where the emphasis is not on skaters or their tricks but how the spots themselves exist within the surrounding landscape. According to Gilligan, the project “has always been driven by an underlying sense of urgency that I had to somehow make this work about skate culture and my experience within this world.”