I started skateboarding about 15 years ago and over the years I stopped and started a bunch of times only because life gets in the way and things happen and change … it’s not a bad thing but lately I have been really missing it. It’s weird because I have been skating again for about the last year but have really battled to make time for it so it’s not really happened as much as I like … even though I am really enjoying it again.

I guess that essentially skateboarding has definitely been the biggest “shaper” of who I am as a person. It taught me to be free, got me into the music that I listen to, started my interest in photography, allowed me to meet my wife, showed me the world (or at least a lot more of it than I would’ve seen without it) and generally built the character that I am.

I set up a scene in my friends warehouse a few weeks back and setup some light so that he could shoot a photo of me so that I can look at it and keep motivated. I want to try and get back into it more from the new year.

Anyway, I recently watched the Bones Brigade autobiography documentary and that’s motivated it even more.

Here’s to skateboarding. Haha.

I was working through all my backups this last week and found this photo of Moses that I shot back in the day. It’s one of my favourites that I shot with him.

Skateworld – Edenvale – April 2006

My buddy, Alastair, and I have been skating quite a lot together in the last year and he pushes me loads again which is super fun. I worked on a shoot the other day and had some props left over so thought it would be cool to use a few of them for something personal before we get rid of them. I had an idea in mind and we shot these photos the other night. The only difference in lighting between the two is the use of a purple gel on the back light in the first one. Kickflip and pop-shuvit … in that order.

It’s good every now and then to shoot something that isn’t a commissioned work piece to keep the “passion” I have for photography there.

My uncle (and great friend), Rudi Jeggle, pretty much got me into skateboarding back in the day and got me thinking about music from early on which pretty much were two huge influences of my life. He’s a super cool guy and I’ve looked up to him for ages. When I still lived in South Africa we used to skate together a lot and built a few obstacles in his warehouse that we used to private-session almost every day. I loved that time and we used to film and shoot a lot of photographs of each other. This is an image I shot of him one day and really like it.

Rudi is also a photographer and you should check out some of his work on his blog if you get a chance.

Good times.

Over the years I have worked really closely with the guys from KFD Skateboards and it has always been a really good time. Recently I was contacted by a designer from California named Quoc Lu as he was wanting to build up his portfolio to break into the action sports scene and he used 3 of my photographs to put together an ad campaign for his portfolio.

I almost forgot about it and then he sent me back these three images which I really like. He did some research on the product and used the Tattoo Series as his basis for the ads and I thought I would post them because I also really love these 3 photographs that I shot of the guys.

So I have been working like crazy lately which is a good thing but I hate that I have so much new work to show and no where to show it. I mean, I really liked the way my old website looked but it really just was too much distraction as apposed to just showing off the photographs. It’s always hard to think of the best way to showcase online because I do not like Flash based websites purely because I have seen so many people having issues using them and in the end I think I wanted to make sure that mine would be as user friendly as possible. The website I had also never allowed me to put the photos up at a decent size so with all this in mind I have created a new one from scratch and although I am still filtering through photographs and updating the content, there is a good amount up so that I can release it.

If you have a chance, make sure to check out www.marcusmaschwitz.co.uk and have a look. As I said I am still busy uploading content so keep checking back.

This is a screen grab of the home page, hope you like.

So I decided to make a Facebook Page a few weeks back and I am trying to make sure that I keep it up to date with my work as I go along. It is a cool way to follow my work if you like what I do so if you are on Facebook and you are ever bored at work, then join me by visiting me by clicking here.

I shot this photograph of Jeff Mouton quite a while back but I totally forgot about it. I like it because of the way that the tree is lit up so here it is. I really want to go shoot skate photos in the night now.

Have a good weekend all, M

I shot a photo with my buddy Dean yesterday at sunset just because I love that guy. Here is one of them.

Found a place to move to today. Yay, hope its alright. Will take some photos later.

Have a good day, Marcus

My chest has packed up as it always seems to do this time of the year so that means no skateboarding for me for a while. Its really not that fun and laying in bed really isn’t my best thing to do. Decided to use some of the time yesterday to shoot with Dean at Skateworld in Edenvale and I am so glad I did. We didn’t shoot too much because the sun sets super quick in winter and we only got there late. Anyway, these two photos are of Dean front blunting the yellow barrier I picked up a while back. His style is so so so good. Definitely going to shoot with him a lot more in the future and know this kid is going to make it big some day.