Locals Only: 30 Posters. California Skateboarding 1975–1978

66 pages
Photograph(s) by Hugh Holland
35.7 x 28.2 cm
Language: English
Paperback
Publisher: Chronicle
2023

Locals Only is a deluxe book of 30 removable and frameable posters by legendary skateboard photographer Hugh Holland. Throughout the 1970s, Holland documented not only the nascent sport that originated in Southern California, but also the style, grace, and athleticism of the teenagers themselves.

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 on. From these suburban backyard haunts to the asphalt streets that connected them, L.A. was the place that created the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarders. Holland's photographs document these sidewalk surfers on the streets of Los Angeles, parts of the San Fernando Valley, Venice Beach, and as far away as San Francisco and Baja California, Mexico. With their requisite bleached-blond hair, tanned bodies, tube socks, and Vans sneakers, these young outsiders are masterfully captured against a sometimes harsh but always sunny Southern California landscape.