William Sharp - Skateboard World Magazine / Book Project

William Sharp and his late brother Stan Sharp were the principal photographers at Skateboard World Magazine in the late 1970’s. They logged an incredible amount of hours and amassed a huge archive during their time behind the lens. From skateboarding’s early inception and its development, they shot it all. Their archive is massive.

There are images of banks and schoolyards with Kent Senatore and the Altieri brothers, pools with Jerry Valdez, Stacy Peralta and others, parks with Tom Fain and Brad Bowman and the desert full pipes with Tony Alva to name just a few.  I have recently began talking with Bill and we are in the preliminary stages of laying out a book project together.

It is going to be a pretty large undertaking but it is the realization of a dream for me and I know Bill is very happy to be getting the project started as well. Rather than write a book about an area, we decided it would be better to focus on the era itself. I will be sitting down with Bill in two weeks and going through the images to narrow down our focus and then begin the follow up interviews with the riders. Most of these early pioneers are still around and it will be a real privilege to sit with them and discuss the images, their skateboarding and its overall historical significance. We are both committed to doing a stellar, factual book on the late 1970’s era of skateboarding. I will keep you up to date as we move along. Thanks to William Sharp for the teaser images. Skate- Ozzie