Tadej Vaukman: Dick Skinners
Tadej Vaukman‘s photographs are direct, raw, some time violent. Tadej shoots his skater friends without any compromise. His work reminds me on Nan Goldin‘s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency serie. I think about the descend into hell in William S. Burroughs‘s book Naked Lunch too.
Behind this nihilism hides the rebellion of a so called underground skater scene who refuses the commercialisation of his lifestyle. Tadej and his buddies are modern nomads who ignore the social norms and live in squats, who travel from skate parc to the next spot, who prefer the freedom as a bad pay job.
Tadej Vaukman is a photographer who shows us his environment without compassion. He decides in favour of the freedom and for the magical instant, when on your skate you are one with the flow.
Dick Skinners show is a series of photographs Tadej Vaukman shot in the last seven years. His need to be out there on the road or just stucked with his friends in the living room doing everyday things was his rush. He captured moments in a rough way, straight to the point, without any “lipstick”. All these photos helped him to get through the days, months and years and they kept him going on, after all, he once said “i`m pretty lucky I`m still alive”, so taking all these snaps helped him to remember he isn`t alone and there`s something worth fighting for – to stay alive and be able to have a proper breakfast once in a while, to go on a roatrip with his brothers and feel free, to go to bed with a smile on his face, without brushing his teeth.
Tadej Vaukman was born in 1984 in Slovenia. He grew up in Dravograd and had and easy childhood until his parents got divorced and things got a little dark for him. He quit all his schools, became a loner for a while, but then he found a new family – his friends. They did everything together and once they realised they have a really strong bound, they hit the road by forming bands. That time Tadej start shooting his first photos (cca. 2005), his approach to photography was rough and “anti-technical”. In 2006 he got really into fanzine scene as a part of “Kino” zine, later he started to put out his own photography zines. Today he still travels with his friends, works as a photographer and he tries not to give to much bull`s crap about everything. His work was shown all over the Europe, from galleries to public toilets.
