Photography

Jerry Hsu Documents The Non-Events Of Daily Life

Scroll

Words: Anna Dorothea Ker

Professional skateboarder and photographer, Jerry Hsu is as renowned for his artistic craft as he is for his sporting talent. This week, the work of the LA-based artist is gracing Berlin, in the form of his exhibition, ‘A Love Like Mine is Hard to Find’, on show from April 30 at HVW8 Berlin, hosted in collaboration with Slow Culture.

“Skateboarding is about interpreting your environment, and that’s also how I approach photography.”

Hailing from San Jose, California, and now based in Los Angeles, Hsu has been skating and creating images – with a focus on street photography – since 2007. Aiming to capture both the beauty and the absurdity of the ’non-events’ of everyday life, finding amusement or bemusement in the moments which might pass others by. For Hsu, photography and skateboarding have always been inextricably linked. A fan of comic book art as a child, Hsu was introduced to skateboarding via the medium of magazines. Being sponsored later on in life allowed him the freedom to explore artistic photography. “Skateboarding is about interpreting your environment, and that’s also how I approach photography,” he explains. “I take what’s arbitrarily around me and create what I want to see.”

The magazine has been a recurring format in Hsu’s artistic practice. His zine, ‘Our Moment Together’ came about when aspiring young skateboarders kept approaching him for a photo. Unsure of how to act, he decided to start documenting the experience. “I like how it turned out because it encapsulates what skate kids look like right now,” Hsu explains, describing his current show as “a mixture of old and new photographs that mixes my street photography with some more sentimental themes.”

Find out more about the exhibition, which runs from April 30 – June 4, here.