We suppose everyone should be used to Shinpei Ueno, who we were lucky enough to interview for Issue #3, putting out videos that celebrate skateboarding’s inherent creativity, but this one is too cool not to post. Tokyo skate boutique Qucon teamed up with legendary Japanese street photographer Daidō Moriyama to create a line of clothes, bags, coffee mugs, dishes, and other assorted awesomeness, and they brought Evisen Skateboards, which Ueno co-owns, in on the project. Thus, in addition to releasing a whole line of boards featuring Moriyama’s iconic photographs (sadly, all sold out), Qucon built together an indoor skate space that is completely covered with one of Moriyama’s most well-known photographs: a vivid close-up of a pair of lips. They also illuminated their permanent outdoor skate spot with video projection of more of Moriyama’s images. And you know they invited the Evisen team to come put both to good use.The spot would be a sight to behold on its own, but with people like Laurence Keefe, Kento Yoshioka (who is “sometimes staff” at Qucon), and the man behind the lens himself, it’s a visual feast. Besides that, it opens with a short interview with Moriyama “on the definition of his own photography, his thoughts on the city he has been shooting for years, and on skateboarding.” They assure us this will make the video interesting “to an audience beyond skateboarders,” but we think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be especially interesting to skateboarders, and we’re excited for you to see it.
