PHOTO: Mark Oblow

Editors Note: We met Arto Saari last year and had the opportunity to work with him on The Copenhagen Project. It was by far one of the raddest opportunities we’ve ever had — documenting and participating in an event as rad as that alongside Arto. And it was a clear turning point for us — creating alongside a skateboard icon and legend like Arto Saari. The funny, full circle thing about that is that it was Mark Oblow who was one of the first people we met to identify our vision for What Youth and motivate us to do whatever the fuck we wanted — be it skateboarding, surfing, fashion, music…anything — instead of doing what an industry told us we were supposed to do. This photo, taken over 10 years ago, on a nondescript street corner in Spain of Arto, represents that to us. And we can’t thank both these dudes enough for paving the way. — Travis 

Arto Saari, Spain, 2003

Mark Oblow:”This was the first time I shot Arto. Dylan Rieder and I went to meet him right after he got on Quiksilver. He had a blown out knee at the time so he was shooting photos and filming Dylan instead of skating. I shot this on my Contax t-3.”

To see more of Oblow’s incredible archive, check out his website, tumblr and Instagram: @markoblow