[{"id":"66471","title":"Tobin Yelland Leads a Vans Vision Walk in San Francisco","alias":"tobin-yelland-leads-a-vision-walk-in-san-francisco","catid":"30","published":"1","introtext":"\u201cCreativity is so contagious,\u201d Yelland tells us. Seeing someone do something different and realizing that \u201cyou don\u2019t have to do the same thing, you don\u2019t have to follow this structure, you <\/span><\/span>","fulltext":"\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

Vision Walk: San Francisco<\/h1>\r\n

With Tobin Yelland<\/h2>\r\n

We are traveling around the country with VANS VISION WALKS<\/a>, a series of workshops led by some of our favorite photographers in their home cities. This past weekend we spent the AFTERNOON with Tobin Yelland<\/a> as he led participants on a walk through the Mission District in San Francisco.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

\u201cSan Francisco is such a colorful place,\u201d explains Tobin Yelland. \u201cThere's the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence... I'm ten and watching nuns play baseball. Dudes dressed like nuns playing baseball...\u201d Growing up in the 70s and 80s in San Francisco, Yelland was raised in a city and household that embraced creative expression. As a teenager picking up a camera to photograph his friends skateboarding, it was only natural that his talent and interests were supported and encouraged by a growing community of like-minded artists, skaters, filmmakers, and photographers. \u201cCreativity is so contagious,\u201d Yelland tells us. Seeing someone do something different and realizing that \u201cyou don\u2019t have to do the same thing, you don\u2019t have to follow this structure, you can do whatever you want,\u201d can be life-changing. Yelland led a Vans Vision Walk around San Francisco\u2019s Mission District last weekend, encouraging everyone to collaborate with one another and sharing what he has learned from over three decades of being a photographer. Read our interview with him and watch a video below.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n
<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/span><\/section>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

Juxtapoz:<\/em> You got into photography pretty young, before high school, right?<\/strong>
Tobin Yelland:<\/em> I got into skateboarding when I was in middle school. The friends that I met were skateboarders, so they were like, \"We're going to get you to skateboard. We're going to teach you how to skateboard.\" So I started skateboarding, and then at the end of middle school I started borrowing my mom and step dad\u2019s cameras more and shooting photos of my friends skating. I was able to get a camera around eighth grade and then took a photography class with Luke Ogden. We both took it the summer of eighth grade. It was so natural to be like, \"Alright, I'm going to photograph my friends. That's my subjects.\" It was fun.<\/p>\r\n

What were the first photographs you remember having a big impact on you as a kid?<\/strong>
The first photographs I remember really liking were skate magazine photos, like Thrasher<\/em> and Transworld<\/em>. I also really liked David Bailey because he was this British fashion photographer but he would also photograph music. I also liked Edward Weston a lot. I saw The Daybooks of Edward Weston<\/em>. He didn't use any lights or retouching, that's what his thing was. It was all just very natural and real, and that was really cool. It was nice to be around all the skate photographers too, like Bryce Kanights, Mofo and Kevin Thatcher.<\/p>\r\n

How important was that community of creativity for you as a photographer?<\/strong>
Well, I grew up in San Francisco and I think it\u2019s similar to New York in the 80s in that it was inexpensive and you could be an artist and you could live there and make art. I got so much out of being around people like Barry McGee and Margaret Killgallen, Chris Johanson, Julien Stranger, Mickey Reyes and so many other friends that were just out having fun that was a great subject matter to photograph. There were a lot of people in the art studios, people that were making a stab at being a real artist on different levels. It was really cool, lots of inspiring people, musicians too. Lots of great music.<\/p>\r\n

Did being around so many different types of art and people doing creative things help make photography feel like a natural path for you?<\/strong>
My parents are artists so I was always around art galleries and art shows and things like that. San Francisco's just such a colorful place. There are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence... I'm ten and watching nuns play baseball. Dudes dressed like nuns playing baseball and all kinds of crazy stuff going on. And Mission Street in the seventies, there were lowriders going up and down the street. I'd go there with my babysitter and that was really impactful on me.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n