Full Bleed 10th Anniversary – An Interview With Alex Corporan

Intro & Interview by Tom Ianelli
Headline & Strapline Photos by Greg Navarro
All Other Photos by Full Bleed Archive [Credited Underneath]

Ten years ago, to try and make his love for New York skateboarding translatable, Alex Corporan (with the help of Ivory Serra and Andre Razo) published Full Bleed: New York City Skate Photography, a hefty book of photos with no text, chronology or page numbers.

When you open Full Bleed, each photo has such strong associations and connections that a story starts to develop as you turn the pages. This story is aggressive and brutal one moment, then tender and communal the next. There are instances of grief, elation, spontaneity and triumph, but whether you pore over every image, or passingly look at a page or two, the book most effectively serves as a reminder that New York City is constantly redefining itself, and that the only way to make the most of it is to walk out your door and live in it, preferably with a skateboard in hand.

This month, Alex is publishing a 10th anniversary edition of Full Bleed with 96 extra pages and an introduction by Tony Hawk. I sat down with him to chat about his extensive skate history and get his take on the 10th anniversary reissue.

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Runways Got Shorter, Landings Got Longer, Wax Got Faster

2020 — the year that we hold responsible for many of our present woes — didn’t even start that bad.

They fixed the ground at the ledges across from Columbus Park! Seemingly out of nowhere! Here was a spot that we had only vicariously experienced in old videos, passed by zillions of times thinking, “Man, if only the ground wasn’t shit,” and maybe forced a session on every half-decade. And it was renovated!

Two ledges! With ends! A block from the hellish Bermuda-esque Triangle formed by Family Court x Blubba x Courthouse at that!

2021 began with a similar moment of spot serendipity. The Money Longer alien who took over the lease of the Men in Black towers in 2016 descended and flattened out the second, less iconic fountain at Flushing.

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Deep Breath

In a shocking turn of events, there is currently a New York City Council Proposal to expedite a restoration of the Small Banks and the adjacent basketball courts into an active public space. Leave a comment to show your support.

An eight-minute Jahmir Brown Instagram loosies comp.

A four-minute Carl Aikens IG loosies comp (pretty much all city footy.)

Polar videographer Tor Ström has an incredible new edit out entitled, “Until Then.” Filmed in Malmö, Copenhagen and Portland, Oregon (funny how those places half-a-world apart feel so spiritually connected by terrain, D.I.Ys and weather.) Features much of the Polar extended family.

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Sometimes We Skate & Sometimes We Cry, But I Guess You Know Now …Baby

Photo by Wallacavage

“Kareem was right decades before skateboarding was ready to listen – You gotta break out and I gotta break out – from the invisible biases to the literal abusive behavior, the forces threatening to imprison our edits, our stories, our letters from ever being received.” José Vadi wrote an incredible essay on Free about Kareem Campbell, California in the 1990s, the L.A.P.D., Trilogy, representation, and how it all ties together.

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