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| Locals Only by Hugh Holland: Review Posted: 22 Jan 2011 02:48 PM PST  Locals OnlyEdited by: Steve Crist Published by: AMMO Books Published in: October 2010 76 PgsFormat: Hardcover Source: Publisher Description: One afternoon in 1975, a young photographer named Hugh Holland drove up Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles and encountered skateboarders carving up the drainage ditches along the side of the canyon. Immediately transfixed by their grace and athleticism, he knew he had found an amazing subject. Although not a skateboarder himself, for the next three years Holland never tired of documenting skateboarders surfing the streets of Los Angeles, parts of the San Fernando Valley, Venice Beach, and as far away as San Francisco and Baja California, Mexico. During the mid-1970s, Southern California was experiencing a serious drought, leaving an abundance of empty swimming pools available for trespassing skateboarders to practice their tricks. From these suburban backyard haunts to the asphalt streets that connected them, this was the place that created the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarders. With their requisite bleached blonde hair, tanned bodies, tube socks and Vans, these young outsiders are masterfully captured against a sometimes harsh but always sunny Southern California landscape in LOCALS ONLY. LOCALS ONLY features more than 120 large-format color images plus a Q+A format interview with the artist. My Review: Locals Only is one of the coolest books, and only books I have seen that feature history of skateboarding. Locals Only has pages of photographs of skateboarders and southern California locals that go back to the seventies. Never seen before, these photos are a work of art and a bit of history at the same time. In the beginning of this book, there is a full two page spread of an interview with the photographer of Locals Only, Hugh Holland. In the interview, you can read a little bit about how these photographs came about as well as how Hugh began photography. This book isn't your typical size either. Don't be fooled. Local's Only is about a foot and a half tall by about a foot in width (approximately). By making the book larger, each image now has extensive details. Locals Only is a great gift for skateboarding fans, readers who love photography (especially sports), or anyone who might be interested in the skateboarding culture of Southern California. That is another great thing about Locals Only. While most skateboarding photography books feature action shots of the sport, Locals Only also focuses on the culture behind skateboarding. Each image centers around the sport and also around the people who participated in it. It's really interesting to see the styles and landscapes from those years. I'm hesitant to give this book a rating, mainly because it is Photography, non-fiction. However, for the sake of ratings, I will say that this book falls between a 4 and 5 lantern rating.  I love the history it offers and the beauty it brings to an often demoralized culture. Purchase Links: **Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for the review. No other compensation was made. These are my honest opinions.**
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