DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys

by Glen E. Friedman, C.R. Stecyk

Overview

The bigger, newly designed edition of an iconic skateboarding book, including additional never-before-seen Glen E. Friedman photos and a new C.R. Stecyk III postscript.

"DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys is a stunning book that blends historic words and reports with a photo archive that has a golden shelf in the annals of skateboarding." —SurferToday, One of the Best Skateboard Books of All Time

In the early 1970s, the sport of skateboarding had so waned from its popularity in the 1960s that it was virtually nonexistent. In the DogTown area of west Los Angeles, a group of young surfers known as the Zephyr Team (Z-Boys) was experimenting with new and radical moves and styles in the water, which they translated to the street. When competition skateboarding returned in 1975, the Z-Boys turned the skating world on its head. DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys is a truly fascinating case study of how an underground sport ascended in the world. These are the stories and images of a time that not only inspired a generation but changed the face of the sport forever.

This volume has been described as "the DogTown textbook" and an indispensable companion piece to the Sony Pictures Classics film Dogtown and Z-Boys. Now spanning 1975–1985 and beyond, the first section of the book includes the best of the DogTown articles written and photographed by C.R. Stecyk III as they originally appeared in SkateBoarder Magazine. The second half compiles hundreds of skate images from the archives of Glen E. Friedman—many of which appear in the movie. (Stecyk and Friedman acted as executive producers and advisors for the film.)

The bigger, newly designed edition of the book includes many never-before-seen Friedman photos, along with a new postscript by Stecyk.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617756993
Publisher:	Akashic Books, Ltd.
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,113,206
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

GLEN E. FRIEDMAN, one of the most important photographers of his generation, is known for his influential and iconic images of rebellious artists from classic skateboarding, punk, and hip-hop cultures. As a true artist his process was much more incendiary than it was documentary. Friedman, first published at the age of fourteen, has produced over one hundred record covers, countless magazine pages, and almost a dozen books, including What I See: The Black Flag Photographs, Keep Your Eyes Open, DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys, The Idealist, Recognize, My Rules, and Together Forever: The Run-DMC and Beastie Boys Photographs. His work is now included in a number of notable international collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution. His latest work is Just a Minor Threat.

C.R. STECYK III is the DogTown godfather. He is a seminal figure in the skateboarding and surfing worlds as a writer, photographer, museum-collected artist, and one of street culture’s chief architects. He is cofounder of Juxtapoz magazine, and one of the earliest iconic inductees into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. Stecyk is a Southern California native. His latest work is DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys.

Editorial Reviews

05/27/2019

Veteran skateboard journalist Stecyk and photographer Friedman present a tome of eye-catching images of and articles from Skateboard magazine on the burgeoning Southern California skateboard culture of the 1970s and ’80s. The book documents a group of counterculture skaters called the Z-Boys as they turned the DogTown area in west Los Angeles into a canvas for innovative skateboarding moves inspired by surfing techniques. Friedman, whose work has appeared in the Met and Smithsonian, captures the kinetic energy of the skateboarders as they carve the lips of backyard pools and concrete banks like waves. The articles are enlightening, among them an anecdote about a policeman who shocked skaters by executing a highly technical routine, and interviews with legends like Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva, and Wentzle Ruml, whose answers to questions like “what is the future of skateboarding?” (“what is that question... tomorrow is the future”) sum up the rebellious attitude of the movement. The second half of the book comprises rare color photos taken between 1975 and 1985, showcasing the skaters in motion. This insider’s look at an influential subculture will appeal most to skateboard enthusiasts. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Glen’s reputation was built on documenting the cultures of hip-hop, punk and skateboarding but his photography is far from simple snapshots; it’s the work of an artist who possesses the craft to make you experience that singular moment his camera caught each and every time."

Talk Music Talk Podcast

"[Friedman’s] knack for being in the right place at an extraordinary amount of right times, coupled with his ability to size up noteworthy characters and scenes, has secured his place as one of the most important and recognized photographers of youth culture . . . If it wasn’t for these photos and these words, the story of the Z-Boys may have never been told, and the impact skateboarding’s had on the world would have been significantly reduced."

Strength Magazine

"In 2000, Friedman teamed up with journalist C.R. Stecyk III to produce the iconic book, DogTown: The Legend of the Z-Boys, which has just been reissued in a bigger, newly designed edition by Akashic Books. Now spanning 1975–1985 and beyond, the book features DogTown articles written and photographed by C.R. Stecyk III along with hundreds of images from Friedman’s archives, many of which appeared in the 2001 documentary film, Dogtown and Z-Boys."

Feature Shoot

"Photographer Glen E. Friedman has taken some of the most iconic photos in skateboarding, punk rock and hip hop. Known for capturing the raw energy of a counterculture generation in its prime, his photography helped shape the way people view punk music and redefined the sport of skateboarding."

q (CBC Radio)

"[Friedman's] knack for being in the right place at an extraordinary amount of right times, coupled with his ability to size up noteworthy characters and scenes, has secured his place as one of the most important and recognized photographers of youth culture...If it wasn't for these photos and these words, the story of the Z-Boys may have never been told, and the impact skateboarding's had on the world would have been significantly reduced."
—Strength Magazine

"[An] amazing collection of images from Friedman, who was a skater and friend of the Z-Boys and managed to be there for a ridiculous amount of the important sessions (Tony Alva’s first frontside air ever?!)...The book picks the best of the best from [Stecyk's] articles and photos, and coupled with Friedman's you get a very personal and complete sense of what the whole deal was really about...[A]s a skater, you not only owe it to yourself to check these things out and learn what went down way back when, but you owe it to these guys who changed skating forever."
—SLAP Magazine

"Fueled by Stecyk's often cryptic prose and stark black-and-white photography, these pieces of poetic propaganda proliferated the defiantly aggressive Dogtown skateboarding style that flew in the face of the more wholesome image propagated by the media and then fledgling skateboard industry. With help from prescient (yet barely pubescent at age 14) photographer Glen E. Friedman, who published iconic shots of the Z-Boys for SkateBoarder, the Dogtown scene set the gritty, urban, counter-culture tone that would come to define modern skating...A must-have companion piece."
—Surfer

From the Publisher