In addition to our latest “At Home With” issue, we produced a few videos to go along with the articles. We will release these videos on our website the next couple of days, starting today. Watch “Berlin Bound”, a video by Steffen Grap & Peter Buikema, below!
I clearly remember when this project started, I was talking to Leon Rudolph and I asked: “Why don’t you do full-length videos anymore?” He answered: “Right now, I just don’t want to wait to put something out.” Leon did do a lot this year, he did some stuff for Converse Cons, Cleptomanicx and a couple of independent short videos. So an idea crept into our mind, what if we ask Leon to remix his 2016 work into one longer project? He loved the idea, and from that moment we started to talk regularly about the project, Leon would bring up ideas and started working on the project, he even found a date and a location to premiere the project. Yesterday the video had its premiere in Kassel it premiered together with Jonathon the Dog’s new project. So with, that out the way we are proud to introduce to you Leon Rudolph’s newest project “U Already Know” for PLACE, Enjoy!
Featuring: Danny Sommerfeld, Jonas Hess, Jan Hoffmann, Daniel Pannemann, Hyun Kummer (Versace_Germany), Jun Kummer (Seoul_air), Steffen Grap, Franz Grimm, Max Sand, Moritz Alte and much more.
Those of you that know us have seen us popping up in Leon Rudolph’s latest edit s/o, now if you don’t know what s/o stands for it is short for shout out. I guess that is what Danny Sommerfeld is giving Leon with this behind the scenes style gallery!
Shout out to the end of summer.
Shout out to ignoring the rules of photography.
Shout out to all the cars that passed by and made Franz lose his focus.
Shout out to the next man on the come up.
Shout out to all the teachers that told me I would never amount to something
Shout out to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling in front of.
Shout out to all the places we travel to only to pass by in a second.
Shout out to JJ for bringing a mic to a skate session.
Shout out to ankle braces and smiling faces.
Shout out to all the prayers that were written down by sprayers.
And finally, shout out to all the people that skate second-hand grip and own a first class pet.
Check out Leon’s edit by clicking here and to see more of kaffeezigarette click here.
All photos by Danny Sommerfeld
Text by Roland Hoogwater
Very recently, we had not one but two Placemag sympathizers for a visit in Berlin, Leon Rudolph and Franz Grimm. As Leon is always down to film something, the guys cruised through the city and produced this, naturally, nice edit. And, of course, shout out back to you Leon!
Featuring: Franz Grimm, Danny Sommerfeld, Roland Hoogwater and Steffen Grap.
Skimming through this issue, a couple of things might have become appartent to you. The biggest question you may have noticed us grappling with is what, in fact, is a portrait, and maybe even more importantly, what constitutes a good portrait, and why? As you continue to browse, you might come to multiple, various conclusions. Each one of these will be an important part of you journey back to this central question; you might find yourself becoming increasingly interested in the way you, the reader, and the people featured in this magazine are trying to relate to this theme of the portrait. Coming back to this question will put you in the same state of mind that we were while brainstorming for this issue.
What constitutes a portrait? The current, most direct way to create one is to take out your phone and take a selfie, a sign of the times once reserved for artists who took the time to recreate their own likeness using more analog forms of art production. Our portraiture inquiries were broad in the early phases of creating this issue: we wondered about objects, whether an object could be a portrait of a person. Could a bed, a MacBook, or an internet browser’s history also constitute a portrait? One could argue, in a sense, that more could be said about a person’s character by scrolling through the chronicle of websites they’ve visited than looking at the way he or she renders his or herself via self-portraiture.
Another important question we tossed around is how can a group portrait be made, something we, as the magazine’s stuff, tried to do. What if we were to hire a detective to follow our interview subjects around for a day? Would that work? Could someone else portray you, or would that create a portrait of you both, in tandem, the portrayer and the portrayed, simultaneously, together, in one piece? All roads seem to lead back to Rome, but that doesn’t mean everybody in Rome took the same route. And that is what we wanted to discover as we brainstormed our way to this article. Five people all received one and the same assignment: Create a portrait in your own way, think about the question, yourself and the medium of photography and create something, whether it be an answer or a reflection on the question.
by Roland Hoogwater
Biemer – The Less I Know The Better
Steffen Grap – Destiny/Hope
Laura Kaczmarek – La Marbella
Hugo Snelooper – Hangover
Cameron Strand – Untitled
Today we are premiering “Welcome to Franki” a skateboard video by a young filmer out of Frankfurt named Paul Herrmann. The video was shot in Frankfurt, Berlin, Barcelona and the French capital of Paris. It gives you a good insight into what young German skaters are doing (mostly in Frankfurt and Berlin) but it also has some mainstay people like Kai Hillebrand, Valentin Cafuk, and Timo Meiselbach. All in all we back Paul in his efforts and are proud not only to host the online premiere of his new video but also to welcome him into the PLACE squad. From now on Paul will produce a monthly video column for all of you to enjoy but first things first, take a seat, make yourself comfortable, press play and welcome yourself to Franki.
Featuring:
Valentin Cafuk, Tim Griffel, Luis Waterkamp, Max Barthel, Philipp Weil, Lukas Bergener, Clemens Dembinski, Yunus Ergen, Louis Urban, Anton Jäger, Steffen Grap, Daniel Pannemann, Philipp Oehmige, Johannes Schirrmeister, Deniz Bul, Timo Meiselbach, Rahul Rahman, Nils Hansen, Sascha Scharf, Niklas Stube, Ollie Reinicke, Eric Erhardt, Max Obert, Timo Klein, Kai Hillebrandt, Tom Weimar, Martynas Katauskas, Andrius Kohrs, Tim Thomas, Matthias Ellinger, Kert Hollywood, Luis Kohl.
Photo by Max Barthel
Once again it is Berlin’s young fashion guy Steffen Grap who gets our attention! This time, he brought his gang, too! Filmed and edited by underground star “KollegaJJ”. (030) is on the rise, hate it or love it!
As a skater, you know that there are two things that you are almost constantly on the hunt for, one being new boards and the other being new shoes. Sometimes you might spend your last buck on some skateable second-hand shoes just so you can keep skating. You might not care about the shoes you are skating but you should because what you wear is a big part of your style.
A little while back Supra was kind enough to send some shoes to our office. I always like to read wear tests so we tried to find the right crew so we could do our own wear test. We decided it would be cool if two good friends, Steffen Grap and Johannes Schirrmeister worked together to test the shoe. We asked Steffen to shoot the photos and Johannes was eager to try out the shoes.
As soon as Johannes slipped on the Cuba, he started to skate them and it seems like they were ready straight out of the box. We cruised around and had fun with it, finding or creating some spots along the way. After the session, I asked Johannes what he thought of the shoe and he said basically skated and held up well and he particularly liked the special edition Crown Coalition colorway (black and yellow) and the addition of the lace (most slip-ons seemed to slip off after a little while).
From the start, Supra as always had a strong image with staple shoes like the Skytop, but they also had a very diverse squad of team riders from the get go. Supra’s shoe designs are similar to their team, very diverse. The Cuba Basically is a classic slip-on that has been tweaked by adding some little extras that improve the way the shoe’s fit. The version we tested even had an ollie patch adding to the durability of the shoe.
All in all we like what the brand is doing, they are giving international guys like Lucien Clarke and Oscar Candon the spotlight, and they also seem to support their team’s other creative outlets like Muska’s venture into the art world and Jim Greco’s “The Way Out”. We feel that Supra seems to be moving in the right direction.
Skater Johannes Schirrmeister
All Photos by Steffen Grap
Text and edit by Roland Hoogwater
Berlin based and inspired brand (nulldreinull) presents their new short about a vivid generation of young creatives.
„THIS IS NOT A LOOKBOOK“
Realised by Modest Department
Starring (nulldreinull) founder Steffen Grap and friends
