“This is one of those powerful moments. As tough as it was to see and think about, I’m glad I was there to capture. Jake is an amazing boarder, and sadly broke his back while filming in Japan. I took this image when we visited him in the hospital in Reno, while he was showing us pictures of the spot and describing what happened. Injuries are never fun to go through, yet in a way, they are the balance, the yang, the other side to what we do, the reality that humbles us, that keeps us in check, and reminds us that we are only human. Every time I see a photo of Jake out boarding these days, I’m stoked.” — Kealan Shilling
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Kealan Shilling was shooting analog photography long before popular culture recently decided it was cool again. When he was 18, Kealan turned to life on the road with a 35mm camera, thus beginning a journey that would take him around the world, refining his style and establishing his name in boardriding culture. He even held a position at Snowboard Magazine in the 2000s. But over the years his expertise has broadened to capturing moments of youth, wanderlust, and the never-ending quest for youth. Over the next four weeks, Kealan will share some photographs that he reveres as special moments in time and space, thus expanding the growing influence of the Those Days archive.
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.
