This practice PhD explores how intuitive understanding and tacit knowledge contribute to the creation of skateboard photography and videography. Specifically, the research critically examines the roles of documentary practice, "the creative treatment of actuality" (Grierson, 1971), experience production (Gelter, 2006) and embodied knowledge (Merleau-Ponty, 2004) in the development of visual representations. It seeks to identify and analyse the cultural, social, and aesthetic forces employed by skateboard media photographers and videographers, to recognise patterns of behaviour and operations implicitly represented within the act of making. Drawing on lived experiences, the research illustrates how skateboard media photographers and videographers have honed their skills, creating distinct visual approaches facilitated through closely intertwined relationships and technological advancements.

The main research question asks: What embodied cultural, social, and aesthetic factors influence the documentary practices of skateboard photographers and videographers? Supported by two sub-questions: What are the effective methods of data collection and analysis for understanding embodied media production methods used by skateboard media specialists? And: What visual contrasts can be realised in the way skateboarding media insiders and fashion media outsiders portray skateboarding culture to achieve an equitable representation of skateboarding? The results of this research suggest that fashion's representation of skateboarding is often insufficient, failing to capture the unique aspects of the culture. Responding to findings, the research suggests the potential for collaborative practice between skateboard and fashion media producers to inform the development of skateboard- specific media by couture fashion brands. It is theorised that this practice will create a meaningful representation of skateboarding in fashion imagery, allowing it to reflect contemporary skateboarding culture more accurately.

Named through this research, documentary as method, an interdisciplinary qualitative approach combining visual ethnography, media anthropology, and autoethnography emerged. Documentary as method seeks to examine the relationship between the physical act of producing skateboard-specific media and the meaning applied to its production. Formed of three iterative phases over six years, forty-two participants, including thirty-nine males and three females from the United States and Northern Europe, provided detailed opinions about skateboarding media production. Recording skateboard photographers’ and videographers’ attitudes, behaviours, and interactions, documentary as method utilised visual recordings in the forms of photography, film, sound, and mapping. Detailed fieldwork, interviews, and analysis provided in-depth findings of how skateboard photographers’ and videographers' practices are shaped by their embodied knowledge, experiences, and motivations.

The project employed 35mm cameras, super 8mm, digital cameras, sound recording equipment, pen, and paper. Through participants’ illustrated accounts, this research identified and named five distinct tropes: the bonding climate, the huddle, the sequence/rollout, the fisheye/death lens, and embodied know-how. Invoking the frame of practice research and thinking-through-practice, this investigation emphasises the fluidity between experience production and embodied knowledge, illustrating how skateboard media specialists are respected guardians of their craft and culture. The research findings stress the necessity of skateboarding media professionals to be part of the construction of imagery by fashion photographers and videographers, promoting interdisciplinary aesthetical practices. The incorporation of these strategies would act to alleviate any disparities between variations in media production, potentially leading to a richer, higher-regarded representation of skateboarding by couture fashion brands.