Blading Cup 2015 Polaroid Gallery by Jonathan Labez

8 December 2015 - Exposed

It’s been a month since Blading Cup. The results are in, Instagram and Facebook flooded with filtered images, edits watched, blade photos glanced at, best trick gossiped about, and the next competition is on everyone’s minds. Everything comes and goes so quickly in the digital age. It feels like months have gone by and yet every year it feels like just yesterday for all of us. For those of us that attend these events, we take away the time spent talking to friends we might only see 1 or 2 times a year, making new friends, cheering with old ones, the elation and energy of the crowd, the personal moments we had living for nothing but rollerblading. These are the memories that we’ll hold on to and cherish. These are the memories I choose to capture with Impossible Project Polaroid film.

Why Polaroid? I could give you my reasons, but I’ve been shooting with this film for several years now — too long to be objective. So I did what any person would do. I asked other people for their thoughts. Some said there was a classic timelessness, as if these were shot decades ago. Others liked the anticipation of waiting for a tangible image. To quote one person, “[These] images seem to have more life to them than an iphone photo.” Paraphrasing someone else, with everything going so fast, polaroids slow down time so you can actually think about how good the moment really was.

I went to this year’s Blading Cup with 20 packs of film and the goal of capturing the faces that make up the crowd. Not just the pros or tricks, but the personal moments from that day. Many of the people I photographed, I don’t know personally. You don’t either. These are the people that make up this community. These are their candid smiles and bonds framed in an instant. It’s a story narrated not by soundbytes and aggregate feeds, but by the emotions lived that day.

-Jonathan Labez

A special thanks to Impossible Project (@Impossible_HQ) for their help in making this project a reality.

To see more of Jonathan's photos go to jonathanlabez.com and follow him on Instagram @JMLabez.

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