Craig Snyder

Craig Snyder is an American poet, writer and photographer. He is also a historian of skateboard culture.

Life
Born and raised in South Florida, Snyder became a witness to the skateboard revolution which took place during the 1970s. As one of the first skate photographers of the era, he helped record and document a significant portion of the pioneering activity which was taking place in Florida.

During the late 1970s Snyder became a contributing writer and photographer for Wave Rider and Skate Rider magazines, two glossy publications out of Cocoa Beach, Florida. In 1977 Snyder became the first to photograph and publish images of a then unknown skateboarder named Alan Gelfand. Snyder first met Gelfand that year at the opening of a skatepark in their hometown of Hollywood, Florida. It was there at Skateboard USA that Snyder witnessed the development of one of the most important maneuvers in modern skateboarding. This was the Ollie. Snyder’s other subjects from this period included Mike McGill, Tim Scroggs, Rodney Mullen, Mark Lake, Kent Senatore, Frank Nasworthy, Brad Bowman, Jimmy Plumer and Dogtown's Shogo Kubo and Tony Alva.

Between 1978 and 1982 Snyder also documented the punk rock scene in Tampa, Florida, a locale heavily influenced by the new music which had been emerging out of the main hubs of New York and London. The most legendary group to originate from this central Florida scene were the Strait Jackets, and Snyder photographed them both onstage and offstage during their short duration. Early performances by Iggy Pop, Ramones and U2 were also some of his subjects.

By the mid-1980s Snyder shifted his focus to music and writing. From the 1990s to the 2000s Snyder collaborated with a number of American, European and Japanese musicians on various projects and recordings. At present he is a sometimes contributor to Concrete Wave Magazine, providing articles and photographs for this quarterly publication out of Canada.

Poetry

 * New Mexico Poems. Black Salt Press, 2001.

Non-fiction

 * A Secret History of the Ollie, Vol. 1: The 1970s (Black Salt Press, 2012)

Spoken Word

 * Signal Automatique / Craig Snyder (1993) Independent (Jazz)
 * Papaya Fantasy / Craig Snyder (1996) Independent (Jazz)

Collaborations

 * Digging for Happiness / Bruno Green (1993) Polygram (Rock)
 * Inside Your Head / Daisuke Fujiwara (1997) Independent (Jazz)
 * Siki / Phat (2002) Blue Note (Jazz)
 * Welcome to the Red Barn / Santa Cruz (2003) Hasta Luego (Rock)

Filmography

 * Cruising The Dream (1994) (documentary)