Mike Blabac is one of the preeminent skateboard photographers of his generation. He was born in 1973 in Steubenville, Ohio, and spent his youth in Lansing, Michigan. He first started skating when he was 12, inspired by the photos he saw in skateboarding magazines such as Thrasher and TransWorld SKATEboarding. He had always been interested in photography and spent hours studying the work by legendary skateboarding photographers Luke Ogden, J. Grant Brittain, and Spike Jonze.

In 1999, Blabac joined DC Shoes, Inc., where he still works today as director of skateboarding photography, a job that has taken him around globe and allowed him to shoot some of the greatest skaters today, including Danny Way, Rob Dyrdek, and Josh Kalis. His skateboarding images have appeared in numerous publications including Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and virtually every skateboard magazine and on sites around the world, from websites and billboards to sports-drink bottles.

Mike Blabac releases his first book, BLABAC PHOTO – The Art of Skateboarding Photography, which documents 20 years of skateboarding history pulled from Blabac’s extensive collection of work. DC is releasing a limited edition Blabac Azure Mid shoe to compliment the project and pay homage to Mike’s decade of service as DC’s exclusive skate photographer.

BLABAC PHOTO is the first skateboarding book of its kind, with 224 pages of photography in a beautifully designed, cloth-bound, large format hardcover book. Published by powerHouse Books, BLABAC PHOTO takes you on a visual journey from Blabac’s humble beginnings as a kid who was intrigued by cameras, to shooting some of the most legendary skateboarders of all time.

“In my opinion, Mike has shot some of the most memorable photos in skateboarding, and he has played an integral part in shaping the look of DC,” says Ken Block, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of DC. “Some of Mike’s skateboarding photos for DC’s ads were so strong that we just ended up running them full bleed with almost nothing else in the ad.”

“I’ve come a long way from shooting local kids on the sidewalks of Lansing in 1987 with a used Nikon F3,” says Blabac. “I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by skaters who give me the opportunity to create images that not only will inspire some to go pick up a skateboard as I did, but will hopefully be looked at for many years.”

The contributors to BLABAC PHOTO are skateboarding’s most respected photographers, editors and icons: J. Grant Brittain (Director of Photography, The Skateboard Mag), Dave Swift (Editorial Director, The Skateboard Mag), Jake Phelps (Editor, Thrasher), Scott Johnston (Shoe Designer, Lakai), Aaron Meza (Visual Media Marketing Manager, Girl Skateboards), Ken Block (Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer, DC), Skin Phillips (Editor-in-Chief, TransWorld SKATEboarding), and many others who graciously contributed to the project. This “who’s who” of skateboarding gives detail to events previously unrecorded, and provide inside stories about the iconic images featured throughout the book.

In celebration of the publication of BLABAC PHOTO and Mike Blabac’s unparalleled visual contribution to the brand, DC has created a limited-edition shoe that will be available exclusively at skate shops to correspond with the launch of the book. The shoe features personal touches, including photo-printed insoles and other unique touches, as well as a signed Blabac photo print in a limited number of boxes. The shoe is especially notable considering DC’s reservation of signature shoes being exclusively for its top pros. The Blabac Azure Mid is the first time a DC signature shoe has been made for a non-professional team member.

BLABAC PHOTO and the Blabac Azure Mid is available at www.dcshoes.com/blabac10, DC flagship stores, select skate shops, powerHouse, and select book retailers.

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Marquise Henry – Tre Flip street gap in Chicago. I shot this in September of 2008 on an Alien Workshop filming trip with Marquise and Josh Kalis. We were just skating through the city and happened to stumble upon this gap under the L train. It was hard to time the train, but I had Kalis and a few homies giving me a holler while I was hanging in the alley to let me know Marquise was coming. I used a Hasselblad H3D2 on a tripod with 4 small flashes on all four sides of Marquise to light him up. I simply left the shutter open long enough so that the train would leave streaks from the light.
 
 

Stevie Williams Portrait – This photo was shot in my living room in L.A. in 2001. I used to shoot portraits of him all the time just for shits. This one was obviously the last on the roll. It was shot using a Hasselblad 203FE, and bounced one strobe off the ceiling in my house.

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PJ Ladd Tre Flip – I shot this photo for the cover of the Skateboard Mag in December of 2007. Every flat ground trick he has is perfect – so I wanted to shoot a tre flip since that trick looks so good from above. I rented a crane and used one light. I had to move it around hella times to get the shadow perfect. I didn’t even notice the lines intersecting him at first. It turns out I am not the most observant photographer out there…. I used a Hasselblad H3D2 to shoot this one.
 

Danny Way Christ Air – This was shot on the deck of the DC super ramp in San Diego in 2001. He would just do stuff like this for fun. This was to honor one of his idols growing up Christian Hosoi. It’s crazy looking back at all the stuff we shot. You kind of take it for granted at the time because it is just us hanging out at a ramp having fun drinking beers. I used a Hasselblad 503CW and a 30mm fish eye lens with one flash on camera.

www.blabacphoto.com