Farran Golding in TROUBLESHOOTING
Farran Golding in TROUBLESHOOTING, filmed and edited by Joe Allen, 2021 – 2023.
Photography by Farran Golding from Piece To Camera.
Interview by Andrew James Peters
Were you always shooting with intention to make a zine?
The zine started because of TROUBLESHOOTING, a video by my friend Joe Allen, that was filmed over about two years. It was already half-done by the time I started shooting photos. I wish I’d made a go of it sooner. Around winter last year, we went to Sheffield, a city about an hour south from Leeds where we all live. Joe is from there originally. I’m trying to think of what Sheffield is notable for other than the steel industry, Arctic Monkeys and The Full Monty…
Harry Meadley – ollie over to lipslide, Sheffield. Photo: Farran Golding
They’re pretty good ones.
Anyway, I took my camera out which I hadn’t used in forever. I grabbed it on whim, thinking about having something to look at later down the line. Even though we were going on a little filming mission, I think looking back on photos is different to looking back at footage but when you’ve got both they give each other a different dimension, especially when it’s stuff you were around for.
In about seven years of owning that camera I hadn’t it much because I was never stoked on anything I shot. It never felt like photography “clicked” but that day was the first time I’d shot something and was happy with it enough that it made me excited to shoot more regularly. It was my friend, Harry Meadley ollieing over a wall into lipslide over these bricks which make what you could loosely call a “hubba” (see above). I thought he kind of looked like Heath Kirchart, his silhouette. Later on we wound up at a bank spot outside of Sheffield University, which people usually skate into, and Harry shot me nosewheelieing up it. Having two decent things from the one day was encouraging so I started consistently taking my camera afterwards. We’re always filming when we’re going skating, we went from one video straight into this one, and that’s also been Joe’s program since before I even knew him, so there was constantly things worth shooting too.
Farran Golding – nosemanual up, Sheffield. photo: Harry Meadley
Once there was a handful of photos, making a zine seemed worthwhile. Joe was unsure about making DVDs this time around. He’d done it for his last video, PÉTANQUE and held off releasing the full video online so the stores who backed it could get through their copies. A hardcopy video is a tough enough sell these days, especially if the whole thing is already out, so he decided not to make DVDs for TROUBLESHOOTING. We still felt would still be nice to have something to put on the shelf. I have this website, Civic Leeds, which is a spot map and a local video archive so my logic was I could throw a neat URL on the final page — literally “CIVICLEEDS.COM/TROUBLESHOOTING”. I’m not into QR codes, I don’t want to watch a full-length video – or even just a part – on a phone screen. So by making a zine there was something physical to represents the video and made it easily accessible on a big screen.
Joe Allen, pole jam, Leeds, photo: Farran Golding
You got the zine out to a lot of people and places.
Having friends other cities who work at skate shops was handy and a bunch of them had gotten behind Joe’s last video so it was a mellow ask. With Joe going to all the effort it takes to make a video that my friends and I are a part of, I was down try help in some way. In that sense, the zine was also a way to share TROUBLESHOOTING further afield. Also, having friends in the USA through both work and skating made it a nice thing send around to people who I don’t get to see very often.
James Kelly, manual to impossible, Leeds. photo: Farran Golding
Was it a weird experience putting something out without words when you’re known as a writer?
A little, but it was fun. Journalism is my job so I’m constantly thinking about writing and the video pieces I do, like ‘Favorite Spot’, involve a lot of interviewing and writing to plan them. Making something without words was almost liberating. They’re just a collection of photos that tie into the video and I’m far from a photographer but it was an enjoyable change of pace. I did interview Joe for Vague Skate Mag, which they published alongside TROUBLESHOOTING when he released it, and that contextualizes the whole video. So something got written about it in the end.
Leo Mercer, wallie, Leeds. photo: Farran Golding
What did you do for a launch?
The zine didn’t “launch”, it was just available from the day TROUBLESHOOTING went online. The premiere was a few weeks beforehand at Brudenell Social Club which is basically an old working men’s pub, in a student heavy-area of Leeds, and it’s also a notable music venue. The guy who runs the place is down for skating too so it has long been a go-to premiere joint. A bunch of younger skaters were in the video and because it’s a venue as much as a pub, it was chill for them to be at the premiere. It’s cool that it was accessible for the kids who had some of their first proper footage or parts in that video.
Logan Riley, backside kickflip, Leeds. photo: Farran Golding
Is there anything that you would change if you were making another project like this in the future?
The main thing I’ve kept in mind since is to shoot broader than just the act of skateboarding and the things surrounding a trick apart from the trick itself. Years ago, I interviewed Greg Hunt and he spoke about working on Mind Field and the “fleeting moments” that do a lot of heavy lifting. I wasn’t exactly tuned into that whilst working on the zine but when you’re looking through what you’ve shot in a day there are small and maybe even unintentional things that have a different resonance than a standard skate photo after the fact. I have so much love and respect for Greg’s work so what he said back then has been on my mind a lot when I’ve been out with the camera since TROUBLESHOOTING.
Joe Allen, boardslide bonk, Leeds. photo: Farran Golding
What does TROUBLESHOOTING focus on and what’s the scene that you guys are covering?
It’s our crew skating in Leeds and other areas around the north of England, mostly Yorkshire which is the county. The name TROUBLESHOOTING came about because Joe went through multiple cameras and technical issues whilst working on the video. It’s not exactly a focus but it’s a visual theme, for sure. A real kicker was that the camera I shot the zine with gave up just a few weeks before Joe wrapped up the video.
Tom Davies, wallie, Heckmondwyke photo: Farran Golding
Leeds has always been a city that people have known of in UK skateboarding. A lot of tours used to pass through back in the day, specifically for certain spots. There have always been videographers here but in recent years, there’s been a real influx of local productions and we’re just one of a few crews who are consistently working on videos. TROUBLESHOOTING is just a video featuring a bunch of friends based out of a city but in a skate scene those local videos can feel as important – if not more important – than whatever is happening on a bigger scale.
Naidan Glover, crooked, Leeds. Photo: Farran Golding
What do you think’s different about skating in England rather than the rest of the world, or particularly Leeds?
I haven’t explored that much of the world outside the UK. New York is the only other place I’ve skated much of, so I’m not that well traveled. Although historically I feel when people from the outside have looked in at British skating the focus has mostly been on London and therefore “London” has been used interchangeably for “British” whereas there are many interesting cities and skate scenes elsewhere here. To name a few in my neck of the woods: Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield all have similarities as northern, post-industrial places, but have individual identities.
Joe Allen, frontside wall jam, Leeds. Photo: Farran Golding
Leeds has a lot of greenery and old buildings which makes for an interesting mix; a good amount of old spots are still around with many of the buildings they connect to being historic or cultural institutions. There’s this theatre, the Leeds Playhouse – it’s probably my favorite spot, and it was redeveloped about five years ago. The place already had an extensive history in skateboarding but these days they’re very skate-friendly and appreciate the liveliness of having skaters run laps around their courtyard. Harry, who I mentioned earlier, recently managed to get a granite ledge outside a renowned art gallery renovated in a way that it’s classed as a sculptural installation, specifically to mark the building’s presence as a skate spot. It’s more a recent phenomenon but it’s nice to have this atmosphere where skating is being recognised and welcomed in pockets of the city where it has already existed for decades.
Harry Meadley, backside 5050, Leeds. photo: Farran Golding
The long-standing spots get frequented as much as anything new that pops up and there’s also a whole new generation who are so good. Overall, it’s a complimentary mix of old and new, both in terms of the spots and skaters themselves who make up the city. As I said, it’s post-industrial too so parts of Leeds, and neighbouring smaller cities and towns, are very working class and have an echo of older eras. What’s leftover has a lot of character, especially for skateboarding. When I watch Will Rosenstock’s videos out of Richmond, Virginia it reminds me of a lot of home. Whether its buildings or spots, there’s a lot of red brick around here. I find red bricks pretty endearing.
Farran Golding, ollie up and kickflip down, Leeds. Photo: Al Lovell.
Watch TROUBLESHOOTING in full here. Piece to Camera is available in the USA through Theories Of Atlantis (head to the Civic Leeds site for UK stockists) or hit up Farran directly.