Dylan Kasson's Scooter Camera.

Dylan Kasson:  Scooter rider or 50's farmhand?
Photo by Tom Hoying.

 Proto and Boxes rider Dylan Kasson, in addition to being a really good scooter rider, happens to be an awesome photographer. He's been doing photography for quite a few years, and even goes to school at the Columbus College of Art and Design for photography (but will be transferring to a new school next fall). He has his own website (dylankasson.com) that showcases some galleries of photos he's taken. His latest project involves photography and scooters, and you can follow its progress at http://scootcamera.tumblr.com/. I was fortunate enough to be the first to participate in it. But what exactly is it? I asked Dylan to shed some light on the endeavor.


Jordan Jasa:  So what exactly is this "Scoot Camera" project you are working on?

Dylan Kasson:  I am sending a camera around the world to scooter riders. They will take two photos and then ship it on to the next person. During the downtime on scooter trips all of my friends that scooter are really distant from each other. The only thing really connecting us is the internet. I want to bring a more physical aspect of it. There is a large, but close knit community that are called scooter riders. With this project I can use all of their combined effort into creating something great. I want to bring together scooter riders across the world. With this it doesn't even have to be in person. I can unite people through one common goal.

Can you explain how you got the idea for this project?

I saw somebody do it on a online forum called skateperception, but not to this extent.


Can you tell me about the camera being used? Anything special about it?

It is a Olympus Stylus Epic loaded with Kodak Portra 400 35mm film. I didn't want to choose that crappy of a camera but also not too nice of a camera. If it gets beat up I am not too worried but it can still produce quality images.

The Scooter Camera.

How are the camera's recipients chosen?

Most of them are people I am close friends with. I don't trust a random person with the camera because if they mess it up all the work is ruined. If a random person contacts me I do background research before I send it to them. If there are a lot of people in the same area I try to choose whoever it seems like could take the best quality photos. I don't want to give the camera to 5 people in one area because they would all take pictures of the same thing. I am trying to cover the whole entire world so I cant be wasting my time in one place. If you feel like you are able to participate send me a email at dylankasson@gmail.com

How long do you anticipate the project to last?

At first I thought I was just going to do one roll of film but I realized its going to take a lot more than that. Its not that the project is moving slowly, everybody who has got the camera has been able to shoot and ship it to the next person within one week. If this schedule can be kept with the list of 20+ people it will be a long time. Something like this cant possibly be done quick.

When the camera has returned to you, what are you going to do with the photos?

Definitely put them up on my website. This project is for scooter riders, not for me. Whatever everybody that participated in it wants to do I will do. If that is a gallery showing of it, then I will do that.

Nothing like this has really been done in scooters. Do you think the idea/blog will catch on?

Hopefully the feeling of unity will catch on. Things like this cant be done by many people because it would be the same idea. I am just trying to give back to scootering in a way nobody has done before. I make video parts to give back and promote scootering. This is just another thing I am glad to do for it.
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 Also check out the Almanac videos interview Dylan did with us. And once again, track the Camera's progress through its tumblr.