Gritty Valor

Just before I left ‘Ghetto Park’, the western sunlight made Kevin “Juice” Paylor jut out in a stark way against the earth tone cylinder and concrete walls. The low angle position was shot multiple times on a car seat. It was framed portrait style to avoid including the wide- open car door inside the viewfinder. Shadows reveal the muscular contours of a lean fighting machine.

Almost inside the center of the frame is Juice’s right hand positioned much like an ‘I love you’ sign language gesture; however, the thumb and middle and index finger are curled into a ‘C’ formation to represent the ‘Hammer City Skate Gang’. Each time their members greet one other at ‘Ghetto Park’, they shake hands and clutch each other’s curled middle and index finger, as the other pointed fingers and thumb form the ‘I love you’ sign language gesture. For a couple of seconds a bond and identity is formed and carried forth. It’s as if to say I’ve got love for you and for the passion of skateboarding.

The utility pole and simple lines of the buildings are reminiscent of a California prison yard. Like the confines and rules of inmate engagement inside these state run correctional facilities, boundary lines are drawn along race. There’s only so much space where they can go before crimes are committed against skateboarders in the Washington neighborhood of Long Beach, California.

Juice’s plight through life was exposed in lasting form. The shadowy baggy boxers and blue jeans held up by a wide belt look menacing and heavy, but it’s the heart that matters most like a rapping pattern. Not the sort of clothes you’d put on to perform action-sports, but there was no restriction of movement the first time I witnessed him, in one agile motion, jumping over the chain-link fence perimeter of ‘Ghetto Park’. Observing the scene automatically reveals new ways of how things are done, and not panicking in fear of what may happen to you. His vertical leap represents the faith it takes to overcome obstacles; you must take action to do it. The vivid portrait of Juice is one of the first well-documented photographs I shot that breathes life into the stories of these marginalized misfits.

Skate anywhere in Long Beach long enough and you’ll see a bench, rail, or wall scrawled with the letters “HCSG”; however, look no further than Juice’s right pectoral muscle. It may appear to be graffiti, but it’s actually a vital sign of an underground skateboarding phenomenon. A “hammer” is a term describing the successful execution of a skateboarding trick. Pro-skater Jim Greco defined hammers as “skateboard tricks that are so gnarly they make you want to puke”.

The gritty valor represented in this portrait is necessarily equipped to tell Juice’s story. His former apartment located on Chestnut Street was in the middle of the Eastside Longo’s territory. Venomous black Sharpies scrawled racist language on his doorway and mailbox like ‘Fuck Niggers’. There’s no welcome mat or pat on the back; merely we’re going to kill you if we get a chance. Racial violence in neighborhoods create high prison walls. Juice cautiously lived there for a while with gritty valor against the hatred for color of his skin.