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On Skateboarding, Photography and Artistic Intuition—In Conversation with Jim JARMUSCH
Mar 20, 2025

On Skateboarding, Photography and Artistic Intuition—In Conversation with Jim JARMUSCH

If you could have coffee (and maybe a cigarette) with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? Let us help you out. The only right answer is Jim JARMUSCH. 

Why? Nearly five decades into his remarkable career, the filmmaker and artist is as curious and prolific as ever. His interests are many, his knowledge is wide, and his anecdotes are simply iconic. There’s also the fact that he’s one of cinema’s most singular visionaries, although he would probably disagree with that statement. So we’ll say it for him. 

To celebrate the release of our brand new collaboration, we chat with JARMUSCH about his love of the skateboard as an object and a symbol of freedom. We also go behind the scenes of the rare photographs which grace the collection, and the artistic intuition which informed their creation.

Read on for a special conversation with Jim JARMUSCH. 

INTERVIEW BY ZUZANNA OSIECIMSKA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZANDER TAKETOMO

Let’s start with photography. What pull does it have for you?

Well, I love filmmaking because it’s motion pictures—telling stories using images that move. But still photography is particular because it freezes time. It captures one moment. There’s something inherently dramatic about it, even if the subject is not dramatic. I just find it a constant source of inspiration and input. Whether it’s advertising, artistic photography or personal photography. 

Some years ago, my father was in the hospital in Cleveland, and my brother and I would go back and forth from New York to visit him. To amuse ourselves, we would go to thrift stores which had those bins of old point-and-shoot cameras, which weren’t valuable to anyone anymore. We would sneakily go through them and see if there was any film left over. If there was, we would pocket it and have it developed. So we were randomly looking at images by people we didn’t know at all. Just to see what kind of little insights we could find. It was very amusing, fascinating and depressing. It was a good distraction. 

Do you remember any specific curiosities among the images?

I remember there were some people in a very decrepit backyard. Drinking cheap champagne out of a bottle. I remember very badly framed photographs of people fishing in a lake. Different family celebrations. What I liked most, which is kind of random, was portraits of people. Just standing around in their living rooms and stuff…

It’s a very intimate look into someone's life. 

It’s strange. Especially if you don’t know who they are. But yes, I started shooting with cameras before I was a teenager. And then my father got me an SLR 35mm camera, and I’ve taken thousands and thousands of photographs since. Of course I use photography in my work as a filmmaker, as well as in my collages—they’re all derived from newsprint photography which I reappropriate. Apart from my work as a musician and writer, almost all that I create has something to do with photography.

Which is why it’s so special that photography is the leading medium in your collection with THE SKATEROOM. Could you take us behind the scenes of your TV Photos series? 

I’m a night owl. I stay up at night, get a lot of work done and get a lot of my ideas then. This series was also made at night, I think in the 80’s. I was amusing myself by taking photographs of a small black-and-white CRT TV (you can faintly see the TV around the screen in the images). When I was thinking about what to do for this collection, Arielle [de Saint Phalle, producer], who knows my archive very well, noticed that I have quite a few of those TV photos. 

The images were intuitively selected to go together in sets of three. They’re not connected, but rather juxtaposed in a way that’s more dreamlike than logical. Then the skateboards themselves are glossy black. So it’s all in black-and-white. 

Would you say the process was similar to your collage practice? Is this a collage of sorts?

It is a collage, essentially. Because I’m taking three disparate images, created technically in the same way, and then arranging them together. Whatever juxtaposition or connection there might be, or the viewer might make between them, is either intuitive or random. I’m intentionally not trying to think too much about this. I have a strong intuitive gift that is stronger than my analytical gift. I don’t know if that’s good or bad [laughs].

Jim Jarmusch’s ‘TV Photos’ skate deck collection displayed in a striking black-and-white composition. The legendary filmmaker is reflected in the mirror above, adding a cinematic touch to the scene.

I think it’s safe to say it worked out for you. 

Intuition is very important to me and I use it in everything I make. I try to keep my antenna up. It’s like when making a film—I always have a script, I have a plan, but while we’re shooting, I’m always open to the possibilities of diverging from the plan. Taking a detour, getting a new idea, being affected by things I can’t control, like the weather... Sometimes I have to stop and think, can these problems be a strength? 

You refer to yourself as an amateur who keeps learning his craft. What is something you’ve learned recently? 

The film I have finished recently, called Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, is very observational. It’s a triptych of three stories. I have to define them as three flower arrangements. It was a very delicate procedure to build them. The camera is very carefully observing people, without judging them, and finding how to delicately create a world that is not centered on particular characters or their worldview. There is no hero character that is defining the narrative. And it looks effortless, I hope, when you see the film. But it was not.

What I learned from this process is very valuable because now I am writing a new script, which is one story following two female characters, and it’s also observing them. Parts of it have to be quite intimate with the camera. I didn’t realise until writing the new script that the film I just completed was preparing me for the next one in a funny way. I was supposed to learn the kind of delicacy of watching tiny, non-dramatic things people do that accumulate, that give you an insight into them. Not trying to say anything, or have the film mean anything. But I learned something about filmmaking that I need to now apply to the next thing I’m going to do. 

How exciting and impressive that, having such a strong legacy and style in filmmaking, you’re constantly reinventing your approach. 

I’m a dillettante. I’m a student of everything that interests me. I’m not really an expert in anything, although I’ve spent a lot of time learning, or trying to learn, how to make films. But it's always an ongoing process. 

I get asked often to teach filmmaking, and I almost always decline, because I'm a student. I’m not the professor. I believe there are as many ways to make films as there are people who make them. And so you really need to find your own way, and that’s the only thing I could teach people. 

But that’s an incredible lesson for anyone creating anything! To not get attached to a specific method but to try things out and see where your idea takes you. 

The language of filmmaking is not an easy language to learn and to speak in. It involves a lot of collaboration and incorporates all these other forms that you have to be aware of and attentive to. I’m still learning it. But I think you can apply it to any form of expression, you’re always going to learn new things if you’re open.

When the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa was in his 90’s, he was asked, “are you going to stop making films?” And he said, “yes, I will stop when I learn how to do it.” It was partly false humility, of course, as a master filmmaker. But partly he was sincere. It’s something you keep learning. 

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch holding one of his limited-edition 'TV Photos' skate decks, standing alongside the full collection. Shot in black and white, the image captures Jarmusch’s signature cool aesthetic, blending film, photography, and skate culture.

How does the form of a skate deck inspire you?

In many ways. I don’t know where to start. First, it’s an object that has a use. It can be decorative, or a piece of art. But it also has a function, and that function is freedom. Skaters have always inspired me because they’re using physics for a motion that they are manipulating, riding on and enjoying. They are using very minimal physical properties for being propelled in space. 

A big element of Southern Californian skate culture was the idea of skating in people’s empty swimming pools when they weren’t there. It’s very J.G. Ballard to me, almost science fiction. Skaters in general are non conformists. They’re anarchistic in a lot of ways. They have a kind of wild spirit that I really appreciate. I just love their idea of freedom and this object that they use. 

I have a good skater story!

Please!

Once I was walking in the city and these two skaters were following me. They kept sort of swirling around me, and then they cut me off and said, “hey, hey, hold up!” I was in a hurry, I was late for something. But they said, “we wanna ask you something, man. You’re a filmmaker, right?” And I said, “yes, I am.” They said, “oh, wow, cool! You’re David Lynch, right?” [laughs]

Oh no. 

I said, “no, I’m not David Lynch.” And I kept on walking. But they skated in front of me and stopped me a little later and said, “okay, okay, listen. We just wanna say one thing. If you are David Lynch and you’re just saying that you’re not, we just want to say… David, we really dig your work, man.” And then they skated away.

It’s a big compliment, I guess!

It was a good encounter. I was in a bad mood and they cheered me up. So I just love skaters’ attitude. They have their own styles, sneakers and baggy clothes… They’re like a tribe of wild, non-confirming people. I find them very inspirational. Actually, in my upcoming film, there are little sequences of skaters in each of the three stories. For no other reason except that I like visually seeing and hearing them.

And I like the boards themselves. Years ago, I was talking to Neil Young about how the most perfect form of clothing is the t-shirt. Because anyone can wear it and you can put anything on it. It can be a proclamation, it can be art, it can be plain, it can promote your affinity with some kind of music or movie... Skateboards too can be used as expression. I just like the idea of how they look, how they’re decorated, what’s on them. In my art collection, I have a deck from The Pizz that’s twenty-five years old. I also have a wonderful deck from Beatrice Domond with her childhood picture on it. It’s kind of a famous one now. And from THE SKATEROOM I have a couple from Henry Taylor, and a couple from Raymond Pettibon whom I love. 

Do you skate?

No, I don’t skate. I skated many, many years ago. But skateboards were very different then—less refined and fluid in the way they moved. They had those weird hard wheels. Since then, I tried a few times, but no. I’m not a skater. I’m more of a motorcycle rider… but even this now, with how people drive, and the state of the roads… I have to put this behind me too. Now I’m a pedestrian. And I mean that. Walking is very important to me. Like many people, I get ideas while walking. Because everything slows down then.

New York is a great walking city.

Yes. I also spend a lot of time in Paris, my second city, which I love walking through. I also have a place upstate in the mountains. It’s really wonderful to walk around in the forest.

You’re associated with what we now refer to as the punk-rock scene of the 80’s and 90’s. Punk culture and skate culture have historically often gone hand-in-hand... 

The early punk rock period was about expressing things without the necessity of virtuosity. Without the intent of commercial success. It was something very pure and important. As Johnny Rotten said, “we mean it, man!” It was expressing something for the right reasons. Obviously, skaters’ philosophy is very much in line with that kind of freedom from being tethered by commercial success. A lot of kids that skate, I’m sure their parents tell them, “you’ll never be successful. All you do is skate.” They are outsiders by nature.

And of course we see, working specifically with young skaters, that skateboarding can completely change lives. It teaches resilience and independence.

Yeah, it’s not a team thing. It can be competitive, but it’s still one person with a board and the surface of the world. Whether it be an empty swimming pool, or a skatepark. It’s independent, and yet there is a tribal connection. When we were finding skaters for the film in Dublin, Paris and New York City, we found that some of them were already connected to each other. I think that’s great. 

What interested you in collaborating with Beatrice Domond for this launch?

She’s in my film. I've met her previous to that and I followed the things she designs, as well as her technique as a skater. And she’s just cool. She’s a really wonderful person with a positive energy. Rebellious, non-conformist, she’s got great style, she’s kind, she’s strong as a person… And she’s a skater. An iconic one. I’m very proud to know her. 

Times are turbulent right now. Significantly in the United States. Why is art important in the current climate?

It’s a very dangerous time, this kind of totalitarianism… And it’s happening very fast around the world. My religion is the imagination. It’s the strongest thing humans have. Out of the imagination comes scientific discovery, artistic expression, architecture, all kinds of things… They all start with ideas. Ideas can’t be imprisoned and they can’t be killed. People can be. And they are being killed and imprisoned for their ideas all over the place. More and more so. But you cannot eliminate ideas. You can try to hide them, like the Third Reich tried to hide what they called “degenerate art”... I was just talking to my friend Jack White the other day. He had a catalogue of degenerate art that was banned by the Nazis, and among it were some of the greatest works of art that are now incredibly important to us. So you can suppress the physical thing, you can suppress the human beings… but you cannot kill the ideas. The most important thing we have is to keep expressing them. Being creative and using our imagination is a very powerful gift.

That’s why I love skaters too. You can’t contain them or their spirit. You can stop them from skating but, even then, you can’t stop the spirit of the skating. The freedom of it. The idea of it. It’s extremely important now, maybe more than ever, to continue to create things and express ourselves. It’s also how we find each other. Our tribe. Our connections. The way to get played is to set people against each other. 

I’m very glad that we can put this message out there together with this collection. 

The whole thing of THE SKATEROOM is using this artistic expression on the skateboards and then using the benefits of that towards actual skateparks and young skaters. It’s a very important circularity. It’s very admirable. That’s why I was attracted to THE SKATEROOM when I heard what you do. I was like, these people are cool. 

Final question. Is there anything you’re watching or reading that is really exciting you at the moment?

I watch a lot of old films, because I’m kind of a film nerd. I watch a film almost everyday. And, of course, I listen to a lot of music. I also love books and reading. I get a lot of my inspiration from them. Lately I’ve been really interested in the three books by Constance Debré. I’m obsessed with a French crime writer named Jean-Patrick Manchette, so I’ve been devouring all his books. I also just got a new volume of poems called Pink Dust by Ron Padgett, a poet and friend of mine. Another friend of mine, a French writer named Rose Vidal, will have a new book out called “Drama Doll”... There are some cool things going on in literature. 

Also, there is a book that my friend Lucy Sante just wrote, that was sort of commissioned by Bob Dylan. It’s called “Six Sermons for Bob Dylan”. He asked her to write these texts and they just got published as a small book. I think that’s pretty good.

If you were to ask someone to write six sermons for you, who would you ask?

Oh gosh, I don’t know. Possibly a writer in France whom I like very much named Philippe Azoury. He’s now a psychoanalyst but he was a writer for Libération, wrote a book about the Velvet Underground, and wrote a book about me, sort of. He’s a great writer. 

Well, hopefully this new book happens. 

I don’t know about that. I’m shy about these kinds of things.

A Short Film by Jim Jarmusch

We’re beyond honored to present an exclusive short film directed by the legendary Jim Jarmusch. Shot in New York, the film stars the incredible Beatrice Domond, who brings her signature energy to the streets—riding one of Jarmusch’s own TV Photos skate decks.
TV Photos 1 TV Photos 1
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Limited Edition
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TV Photos 1Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 2 TV Photos 2
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TV Photos 2Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 3 TV Photos 3
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TV Photos 3Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 4 TV Photos 4
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TV Photos 4Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 5 TV Photos 5
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Limited Edition
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TV Photos 5Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos Set Set of five limited-edition skate decks from Jim Jarmusch's 'TV Photos' collection, featuring black-and-white stills from vintage television screens. Photographed in natural light on a textured concrete floor.
Sold out
Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos SetJim JARMUSCH
€599,00
Jim JARMUSCH
6 products
Jim JARMUSCH
TV Photos 1 TV Photos 1
Sold out
Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos 1Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 2 TV Photos 2
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Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos 2Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 3 TV Photos 3
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Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos 3Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 4 TV Photos 4
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Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos 4Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos 5 TV Photos 5
Sold out
Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos 5Jim JARMUSCH
€149,00
TV Photos Set Set of five limited-edition skate decks from Jim Jarmusch's 'TV Photos' collection, featuring black-and-white stills from vintage television screens. Photographed in natural light on a textured concrete floor.
Sold out
Limited Edition
Sold out
Limited Edition
TV Photos SetJim JARMUSCH
€599,00
Jim JARMUSCH
6 products
Jim JARMUSCH