Leigh Wasson

Oliver Barton

Oliver Barton is a skateboard photographer who works for Transworld Skateboarding  Magazine. Barton has a very unique style of shooting skateboarding and he pays close attention the natural and staged lighting. The intense and rapid nature of skateboard movement is amplified by every element of his photography from the dramatic lighting, to the dynamic angle, color, shadow, contrast and texture seen in his photos. He has developed a very interesting personal style of capturing skateboarding. 

Barton also works in portraiture, but continues to use skateboarders as his subjects. His portraits are much less dynamic in the way they are shot, but instead he lets the subjects themselves explain the story. While is skateboard photography implies modern and progressive instantaneous moments frozen in time, his portraits seem to reference a sense of nostalgia or memory implied through a greater sense of time. His portraits also portray the personalities and lifestyles very effectively, his work has an almost film like or story telling quality about it.