Urban Motion

In September 2006 I had my first real world experience with Parkour - one that would ultimately place one of my photographs in the Tate Britain gallery.

At the time I was working shifts for a large IT company based in Leeds, England. At the start of one night shift, as I was getting out of my car I spotted something quite unusual to me: a group of kids were clambering over the roof of Leeds International Pool.

…Funnily, legend has it that the Leeds International Pool has never hosted an official international competition, an error during construction resulted in the pool length being too short for regulations - somebody forgot that the tiles use to line the pool would reduce its length….

I had started to carry my camera bag everywhere with me, so I quickly took out my 5D and started to shoot. I soon realised that one of the kids was sizing up the gap for a jump, so made the decision to get enough environment into the composition to show the scale of what was happening. ‘Leeds Leap’ (above) was the best frame from the sequence.

The photograph itself has received mixed opinions from the wider parkour community. Parkour is not about sensationalism, exhibitionism, or taking risks where there is no call for them. Yet this photo exhibits many of these traits. Perhaps these can be attributed to the desire of the kids involved to publicise their passion for the discipline? There are at least 5 cameras being used by the kids within Leeds Leap, and it was my realisation and subsequent internet search for the video they were shooting that lead me toward making contact with the West Yorkshire ParKour group.