For the release of the newest Krooked Guest Artist deck from Belgian Photographer Quentin De Briey, our Krooked TM, Bram caught up with Quentin to get the who, what and how on his photography work, new book and life of skateboarding and traveling.
Where are you from?
Belgium, The country-side where people speak French.
When did you start skating?
In 1988.
What was your first set up?
A Zorlac board with Gullwing trucks and giant green wheels. Terrible.
I remember growing up and hearing your name. You were one of the first guys I had ever heard about moving away. As a young kid I thought that was so amazing. Leaving your country? That was unheard of. Was it a big deal for you to move away?
It’s true. There was no mobile phones yet. Emails just started and flying was definitely not as popular and easy as nowadays. It was kind of a big deal and a hard decision, but 24 hours after landing in Barcelona I had already forgotten any stress about it!
Who was your crew in Barcelona?
Alexis Zavialof, French photographer, Javier Mendizabal and Luc Prouzat.
Who hooked you up at the time?
I won a contest the same summer I arrived and got a sponsor from Stance, the Spanish distributor at the time.
Did you have any sponsors before you moved to Spain?
Yeah, Ride All Day Skate shop, one of the first shops in Belgium, and Vans from the Belgian distributor.
What has been your most memorable trip while skating?
We did so many! We just kind of started traveling for skateboarding. With Javier we organized the first skate trip to Cuba, Turkey and Tunis. Kenny Reed was coming along, Toni Cox and Jerry Hsu came along to Turkey too. I have so many good pictures from that trip. We went to Costa Rica, Argentina and Mongolia. All those trips were amazing, we had absolute freedom and our sponsors were backing it.
It’s not uncommon for skateboarders to get into photography. You want to document your travels. What was your first camera?
I’ve always taken photos and documented everything around me since I was 15. My first camera was a Nikon FM2 with a 35mm lens. I still use the set up everyday.
Do you remember a time where you were like, “This is amazing. I’m bringing this everywhere.”
Since the very beginning pretty much.
At what point did you go from just shooting just to shoot, to it becoming a profession?
I just wanted it to be my hobby at first. Never thought of it as a job. It became a job when I started to need the money and some magazines proposed to me to publish my photos. It was Kingpin Magazine actually. I shot the first cover of Kingpin with my friend Javier completely randomly. From then I realized I could make it work as a professional photographer and went for it.
Do you remember your first job?
Assignment? No, not really. It was bad for sure.
What are some of your favorite magazines to shoot for?
I don’t have any in particular but I like independent magazines better for sure.
What is the craziest assignment you’ve had to do?
Shooting Alicia Keys around New York the other day was pretty amazing.
Who are the people you look up to? In both skateboarding and outside of skateboarding.
Influences you mean? Mark Gonzales since the very beginning. Every second of Video Days. Then the Girl videos, Rick Howard and Mike Carroll. Tom Penny, just like everybody else I guess. Yesterday I watched every part of Dylan Rieder again. He definitely was one the greatest skateboarder of all times. Photography wise it would be Ed Templeton, Juergen Teller, Bruce Weber…
What does a day in the life look like for you?
Well I spend my time traveling and flying several times a week. So, if I’m not shooting I’m going to be sending mail. Usually working on pre-production and post-production half of the day. I travel with my board everywhere though. So, I go skate wherever I am and go for some beers afterwards. Ha!
You’ve gotten a couple books published. Tell us about the last one! How did that one come about?
I wanted to mix my skateboarding archives with my diaries and some more fashion related pictures. See how everything looked mixed together. Doing books or exhibitions help you do a synthesis of your work and that’s always interesting.
To round this off? Is there anyone you’d want to shoot that you haven’t?
It used to be David Bowie, unfortunately. The list is very long of course but I can’t think of one specific person now.
Follow Quentin on Instagram & check out his full body of work on his website.