I had been photographing Shaun quite a bit. That year, I was shooting the campaign for Burton. The assignment was to get an ad-worthy shot of Shaun in one day, and I didn’t want to get an action shot in the pipe. I wanted something different. It was tricky because I didn’t want to disturb Shaun, as he was nervous. This was right after the Olympics. There were people everywhere trying to find him to get autographs, photos and whatnot. So he was riding around with a scarf over his face. Didn’t really make for great shots. But after he made the finals and had a solid run, he loosened up and it was easier.
After winning the contest, there was this mob following him around. Here at the award ceremony, I was standing behind him on the podium and as the champagne was being opened and the bottles were about to go off, I told Shaun to spit some bubbles on me. I snapped just one shot with my good ol’ Leica, and I knew I had a keeper. — Vincent Skoglund
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This month, Swedish photographer Vincent Skoglund will grace Those Days. He is someone who sees the world differently. Not because it’s through a camera lens, but rather through seeing the surreal in the ordinary, or the beauty in simplicity. Vincent is an artist. He shot his first frames of snowboarding in the early 1990s, frames that would lead to an illustrious career that spanned fifteen years and countless photos published in magazines around the world. Robot Food, Burton, Riksgränsen, but snowboarding could not contain his insatiable creativity. Exhibitions like Lightyears and The Waste Management Series offer a glimpse into the many dimensions of the Swede’s mind, and give us so much more appreciation for his work as a photographer.
Those Days is a new, weekly series from Snowboard Mag that gives photographers a platform to share some of the most memorable moments from their careers. Each month, we give a different photographer the platform to share photos that spur feelings of nostalgia, triumph, pain, happiness; anything with a story they want to tell. Our culture’s history is vast and full of these special, fleeting instants in time. Those Days is here to bring them to you.
