Ewen Spencer snaps skaters who take over the Stratford Centre by night

I’ve got nothing but admiration for household name photographers who, even at the peak of their careers, use zines to get their freshest work out into the world. Cue Ewen Spencer’s newest edition of Guapamente, a staple-bound photobook which peers guilelessly into a new subculture with each issue, and which is now on issue number four. This time around it’s Jam & Cheese he’s getting out into the world, a collection of photos of the skaters who take over East London’s Stratford Centre overnight at the weekends, wearing skates built out of ice skates, and ready to forget everything except skating.

“I hear it said that the internet has killed youth culture, that everyone likes the same thing, that kids don’t care,” the text on the centrefold reads. “ Jam & Cheese shows us that the kids are very much alive, that there is a quiet rebellion going on in unwanted shopping centres, in underground car parks and on the London streets that belong to us all. They will take what you no longer want and make it beautiful.”

It continues: “The portraits you see on the pages you are holding belong to a family of strangers who meet at the Stratford Centre in east London and skate on the shiny floors that propel their speed and graceful flair. They come ready, in tracksuits, jeans and hoodies, some with sound systems to create that DIY rave.” Designed by Studio Yukiko, the zine is wrapped in an A3-size foldout poster, and leaves Ewen’s images to do all of the talking.