Skate

She Shredders: A skate portrait series by Olivia Bohac

We fully love this skate portrait series by Olivia Bohac, which she is kindly letting us run on the site for your viewing pleasure. Points if you can spot UK skate superstar Lucy Adams and regular contributor Hannah Bailey in the mix. Olivia is just 21 and currently in her final year at Falmouth University. Bright future ahead we think. We asked her to write some words to go with the shots and here’s what she had to say

I have developed a keen interest in portraiture through being at university, and in my second year I wanted to create a body of work that looked at the representation of women in male dominated sports. It’s obvious to say that would be all sports, but I focused of surfing to begin with as being in the west country made it accessible to find subjects.

Working to a submission deadline is never ideal though and I wasn’t pleased with my final edit. I had met and done various photo shoots with Lucy Adams over the year, both individually and at skate sessions where she was coaching, so decided to set-up something very basic to create a series of images that I was happy with.

I based the portraits on a body of work called ‘The Cadets’ by photographer Daniel Patrick Lilley.

I think girls are still battling the many preconceived ideas and stereotypes that sport presents to them, but those barriers are continuously being broken down. To entice and increase the number of girls in any sport requires commitment and positivity, and sessions like She Shredders that have been set-up so people can try out the sport or just meet new people to enjoy it with, are a perfect example of moving forward.

Through these portraits I wanted to bring a face and a voice to girls who participate in skating.