Read and Destroy Magazine Archive Exhibition at Coal Drops Yard 2021.

In 1987 a popular but fading BMX magazine began increasingly to cover the resurgence of skateboarding. Times were changing and from the ashes of that magazine new title emerged - RAD - Read and Destroy. This revived publication spoke loudly and in full colour to its new converts. RAD magazine documented a unique time, place and attitude within skateboarding and youth culture. Significantly capturing skateboardings ‘death’ and rebirth and progression. For a generation of youth, pre X-Games and internet, the magazine was a vital connection to their subculture, featuring visiting US professional skateboarding talent, alongside skaters both amateur and professional, from across the UK and Europe.

Ben Jobe - Southbank - London - Early Mid 1990s.

The name Ben Jobe is legendary in UK skateboarding history. But Ben Jobe is not his real name…

Mike Manzoori - Cantelowes - London - 1994

Originally used on the cover of Read and Destroy magazine alongside pictures of Tom Penny, Danny Wainwright and Geoff Rowley. All of whom left Britain to live in America at around the same time in the mid nineties.

Mike Manzoori - Harrow - 1993

This frame was hidden inside the collection for many years until Dan at the RAD Archive took a liking to the picture itself and the markings I’d made on the contact sheet back when I’d first seen the image.

The exhibition at Coal Drops Yard gave us an excuse to work it up into something usable.