Jarrad Carlin's Portrait Of Andrés Ramírez

Andrés Ramírez, the Colombian skater most people know from his complete lack of fear and ability to bomb hills, is one of those people I’d imagine gets judged a lot by his exterior.

However Jarrad Carlin, an equally talented skater is not a person to judge. Instead he’s dedicated an entire photo book of Andrés, called Sin Señal, capturing the skater and his hometown in Colombia. The two met in Paris with no common language, skated together for the day and by the end of it, had a trip planned together back to Andrés home. While there was no set mission to create a photobook from the trip, Jarrad took photos as the opportunities arose, which as it turns out, were in plenty. Published by Permanent Files and available to buy on IDEA, we caught up with Jarrad to give us the tea on his latest wonderful release.

Hi Jarrad! Sorry I missed your call. Are you well?

Hey Sammy, all good. I’m just driving so good timing to do this in the car. You’re in Biarritz yeah? How is it?

I'm loving it here. All the tourists have gone home. It's very noticeable how much chiller it is in town, which is actually so nice, even though it's really fun when it's buzzing.

It’s funny when you live in places where you aren’t from but where you’re also not a tourist. That was me in Paris for the last two years, living on and off over the summer. Now when I go when it’s Fashion Week or something when it’s super busy, I’m like oh this is such a pain, and it’s obvious how much the locals do not want you to be there.

Is that how you met Andrés? In Paris?

Yeah we met at a skate spot called Bastille. He was with a mate of mine who I was already linking up with. My mate was late, but Andrés was there. When I say he couldn’t speak any English I mean the most was ‘hi’. But we started skating together anyway. There’s something about skating and surfing where you’re not actually speaking, but there’s still so much communication. You can understand someone a lot from their style. We ended up hanging out for the day and talking to each other via Google translate. Then at the end of the day he told me I should come to Colombia. I told my mate that he should make sure he knows if he offers me that, I'm actually going to pull up, you know. Then by the end of the year I was in Colombia with him.

Was that your first time in Colombia?

In South America all together yeah. It is such a special part of the world. South American people in general are just the friendliest people.

And the title of the book, which translates to ‘no signal’ in English - what’s the story with that?

Yeah so when he was younger he was hit by a truck or a bus, not exactly clear on what, because of the language barrier. He was in a coma for over a month. He has ‘sin señal’ tattooed on the side of his head because he had no signal in his brain during that coma. He is one of the most interesting people I’ve met, just so put together. As a photographer, he’s so interesting to document.

And IDEA Books is selling it. That’s so cool. I’m obsessed with anything IDEA puts out.

Yeah so the publisher is actually Permanent Files. I worked with Leo from there who came up with the idea to do one page glossy and the other side matte. Just a bit of a different layout to make it more interesting to flick through. When I had my London launch, some of the crew from IDEA came along and bought a few copies to sell. With the way I’ve been travelling it would make it super hard to send copies so I figured it’s easier to let people get it straight from them. It’s one of my favourite shops in general so I’m super stoked they have it on there

What cameras did you mainly shoot on?

I always bring a lot of cameras with me, mainly because I haven’t been living anywhere so I’ve been forced to carry all my belongings. A Nikon F5, and a Pentax 645 are the ones I usually carry with me. Then I also used another Fuji point and shoot for this book which is medium format. I was shooting so much by the end of the two weeks I didn’t even know what I had shot but just that it was a lot. I didn’t intend this to be a book but when I was going through everything I thought there might actually be something there. It was a very natural process.

Do you think there are any similarities between taking photos and skateboarding? I feel like the obvious is maybe noticing spots where others wouldn’t but is there other things?

You are definitely right about the noticing of spots. I love that I am constantly fine tuning my eye to notice spots and architecture, little bumps in the road or the footpath. Before I got into photography I just had so much less awareness of light, or where it’s coming from or how to use it to make things look good. Photography makes your day so much more interesting when you notice small things. ✅

Do you think in any way photography helps with your skateboarding at all or do you prefer to keep them as separate creative outlets?

I started shooting a lot more when I was injured about four or five years ago, and I really enjoyed having another outlet that took the pressure off the injury I was feeling at the time. Just to have something else to focus on, you know? At the same time it’s also really helped with my skating and being a skater because I understand a skate photographer’s job so much more. I get why they want to get up and shoot a spot at a certain time of the day. I’ve always been so happy when photographers have captured a nice photo of me skating, but now even more so. I’m also not trying to be a skate photographer or the images I put out to be too skatey, but there’s definitely a mutual inspiration, if that makes sense.

Yeah I get that. Also just the general appreciation of a photographer when you try your bit in it. I mean I can’t even take a fucking Iphone photo so I appreciate any kind of photography personally but even I’m trying to figure out film a little but more lately and it makes me appreciate what a good photographer can do even more.  

Yeah as skaters we are so lucky to have super talented photographers around us. We kind of grow up with these people so it’s a privilege to learn from them when you can.

Do you think being from a relatively small town in New Zealand has had any influence on your ability to kind of see the bigger picture of the world that a photographer needs? Like if you grew up in New York or London it’s already so big but coming from the Mount in New Zealand, and arriving to these big cities it’s already just so wow to us.

I think you just naturally take in a lot more. I mean any trip I go on I’m so appreciative because no one from the town I’m from gets to do this. I feel so lucky to do it. Any opportunity to go anywhere new I’m there. I just want to see everything. There’s a lot of people from New Zealand, parents, friends you go to school with, whatever, where it’s rare to leave. Like I don’t know anyone that I grew up with that lives in Biarritz France you know? Whereas people who grow up in London or New York, it’s way more normal for someone to bounce around and travel. I think being from places like Australia and New Zealand makes you appreciate travel way more and to really make the most of it when you do actually leave.

I agree. And where are you now?

I’m in LA now. I was in London for a long time but yeah I just moved to LA. Whatever moving is, I feel like I'm like mentally moving but I'll still be bouncing around.

What are you most excited about for the rest of the year?

Getting to LA and being able to settle a bit more. Skate a lot and make the most of the sunny days in LA. Have a bit more stability and a reset here. Meet some new people. There’s some nice things coming out soon that have been in the works for a while. Just onto the next chapter really it feels like. I’m excited.