A beautiful hardcover coffee table book with 424 pages full of unseen photos from 1980's BMX Freestyle, shot by Bill Batchelor. Bill had taken most of the incredible photos throughout the book when he was 13 years old, now scanned in and digitized almost 35 years later.
""An important part of BMX freestyle history"" - Bob Haro
""One of the most talented--and youngest--photographers in BMX"" - John Ker/BMX PLUS!
Take a nostalgic trip back to the mid-80's, when BMX was life.
Concrete and Smog Includes coverage of some of the earliest AFA freestyle and King of the Skateparks contests, rad Pipeline sessions, and a behind-the-scenes perspective on the sponsored pros you haven’t seen before. The bonus section from 1988 delivers more AFA action and the infamous Meet the Street freestyle street contest which changed BMX forever.
More than a photobook, Concrete and Smog tells Bill's story of catapulting from a young BMX fanatic to one of only a half-dozen photographers behind the skatepark fence, working alongside BMX photo legends Bob Osborn and John Ker. Designed with the analog aesthetic of his original fanzines, the book weaves unseen photos with contemporary writings and vintage content into a four-pound book of 1980s BMX freestyle history.
By Bill:
Summer 1984, Upland California.
I was just a seventh grade BMX nerd when I picked up a camera and started documenting my friends jumping bikes in the citrus groves, doing driveway freestyle tricks and carving bowls at the Pipeline skatepark. Twelve months later I was contributing photographer for the newsstand BMX mags and headed for total burnout. At the end of 1985 I walked away from it all and never looked back.
During this brief period I shot thousands of BMX freestyle photos and embedded myself into the frenzied scene developing around a new worldwide sport. For over 35 years, the pictures have been archived to a dusty file box in my garage.
Concrete and Smog pieces together my grainy BMX memories to show a nearly lost perspective of the legendary California BMX freestyle scene.
