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| WE COULD TELL YOU that Craig B. Snyder is a writer, but on that we’re not exactly certain. We could tell you that Craig is a poet too, but he doesn't know how to rhyme. We could also tell you that he is an artist, but that’s another perception on his behalf. Certainly though, we can tell you that Craig B. Snyder is a photographer. During the 1970s he shot a fad called "skateboarding." Craig was onto this sidewalk surfing thing way back in the 1960s when it had come around the first time. And actually, to be honest, Craig couldn’t make up mind between a skateboard and a hula-hoop, but you couldn’t stand on a hula-hoop so he got the skateboard instead. Suddenly, right at the end of 1965, the skateboard fad died—exactly as everyone predicted—and he had nobody to fall off his board with anymore so he started riding a bike. He found falls off bikes could be just as dramatic. As it turned out, Stingray bicycles were the new fad, just like BMX would be in the 1970s. At least they would never get banned like the skateboard.
In the early seventies Craig was introduced to the urethane wheel. He was like “wow!” (Yes, he really said that). He went out and bought himself four of those new-fangled plastic wheels to replace the clay ones on his trusty Hobie Super Surfer. All the politicians and government officials who had banned skateboarding in the mid-sixties had retired, died or gone to jail, so nobody really remembered skateboards were banned anymore. Craig noticed one thing special about skateboarding at this time, and that was his feet were bigger. His 19-inch solid oak Super Surfer just didn't cut the mustard anymore, so he started making his own skate decks out of his garage and later made a business of it with his friend Bobby Little. He also bought a 35mm camera around this same time and started taking photos. He figured if this fad was going to die again—just as everyone was predicting once more—he was going to at least have pictures this time. He thought his friends were pretty good skateboarders too, but because all this was happening in Florida and not California you probably never heard of any of them. Alan “Ollie” Gelfand, Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, Tim Scroggs, Mike Folmer, Jim McCall, Chris Baucom and Mark Lake are some of the guys he photographed, for what it might be worth. Oh, yeah, and Bobby Little. We could also tell you that Craig B. Snyder started shooting punk rock and new wave in the mid-70s up until the early eighties. He shot bands like the Ramones, Iggy Pop, 999, Gang of Four, The Psychedelic Furs and a band from Ireland with a really weird name. They called themselves "U2." He saw them during their first U.S. tour in 1981 and there were a total of about 30 people in the audience. But Craig was there with camera, and just like skateboarding would die, so would this band but at least he’d have some pictures. Presently, Craig uses a digital camera and he’s really mad that skateboarding, punk and even that band with the funny name never died because he spent lots of time taking photos of them when he could have been doing other, more important things. Nowadays, when he's not pretending to be a writer or poet, or text messaging with Valerie Plame and the Dalai Lama, he spends his time shooting nature and civilization because he’s wagering one or both of those things are the next to die. We could also tell you about Craig B. Snyder the provocateur, but that’s a whole story in and of itself. Out of everything that Craig Snyder is, isn’t, or was accidentally caught doing, most people want to know about Craig B. Snyder the secret agent. But then if we told you, it wouldn't be a secret anymore. At this point you’re probably asking, what did any of this have to do with the thousand pound egg, and now we’ll tell you. Absolutely nothing! |
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