An Endless Supply demystify design with ‘Wet Proof’ and a Shari White debut issue

Robin Kirkham of the British design studio An Endless Supply discusses their new publication Wet Proof, which begins with a Shari White issue, and “using the medium of print to articulate an idea in skateboarding.”

Story by Farran Golding

Photography by Shari White

Publication design and photography by An Endless Supply

Listen to this article. Also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Design studio An Endless Supply have launched a series of experimental print publications, Wet Proof with the first issue featuring the work of photographer, videographer and Mess Skate Mag co-founder, Shari White.

Wet Proof is the latest in An Endless Supply’s newfound endeavours into print skate media, which are led by the studio’s co-founder, Robin Kirkham. The first issue of Wet Proof consists exclusively of White’s photography, with appearances from Una Farrar, Dustin Henry, Nick Michel, Evan Wasser, Efron Danzig and Justin Henry amongst others. Although An Endless Supply generally works with artists, galleries and cultural organisations, previous projects include a print translation of Mark Suciu’s mirror lines from Verso as well as a publication for Isle Skateboards.

Una Farrar, nosegrind by Shari White
Design and publication photography: An Endless Supply

The series title stems from publication development and design terminology. A “wet proof” is a printed sample made using the exact materials for a project in order to check the reproduction quality of images before committing to a full print run. Each issue of Wet Proof will highlight the work of a single artist, printed using different inks and materials, and consist of eight pages with the accompanying text captioning the skater, trick and treatment applied to the image.

Kirkham describes the intention of the publication, which is presented unbound in a colour folder and assembled personally, to be “high quality production, lo-fi assembly.” He was drawn to White’s photography specifically after seeing her photo of Rick McCrank 360 flipping over a couch published in a Closer Skateboarding profile written by Cole Nowicki. “There’s something that grabbed me about it,” says Kirkham. “I thought that if I’m looking to do this thing, which is exploring how reprographics can serve skate photography, it would be nice to start with a female photographer, a kind of underserved community in skate photography particularly.”

A spread from 'Wet Proof' by an Endless Supply featuring a photograph by Shari White of professional skateboarder Justin Henry in Manhattan, New York. The same image is printed multiple times, each with different photographic treatments applied to the image.

A spread from Wet Proof featuring Justin Henry with various treatments applied alongside a close up of the central image Design by An Endless Supply / Robin Kirkham, photography by Shari White

Although skateboarding has made progress around gender representation in its sponsored ranks over the past decade, the media landscape still has a ways to go. Natalie Porter is the author of Girl Gangs, Zines, and Powerslides: A History of Badass Women Skateboarders, a columnist for Closer Skateboarding and founder of WomxnSkateHistory, an online library that celebrates women and non-binary skateboarders, also redressing the suggestion that the prevalence of non-male figures in skateboarding is a recent phenomenon.

“Shari White, with her Skate Witches origin story, is an inspiration for women. But while it’s tempting to claim her legacy as ‘ours,’ I would rather see her work honoured as part of the greater fabric of skateboarding,” says Porter. “The future of our community as something inclusive and countercultural depends on initiatives like Wet Proof, that welcomes all and doesn’t pigeonhole. Shari is a fantastic choice. She has elevated the profiles of some incredible skaters, regardless of gender, and keeps providing evidence that skateboarding is more dynamic and rich when everybody has opportunities to contribute.”

A portrait of photographer, videographer and Mess Skate Mag co-founder Shari White. She is smiling, has medium length wavy brown hair and is wearing a brown hoodie and black jeans, pictured against a white backdrop.

A spread from 'Wet Proof' by an Endless Supply featuring a photograph by Shari White of professional skateboarder Dustin Henry sliding a curved ledge. The same image is printed multiple times in black and white, each with different photographic treatments applied to the image.

Shari White by Dustin Henry and spread from Wet Proof featuring Dustin Henry with various treatments applied to the photography An Endless Supply / Robin Kirkham

White is modest about her photography and was surprised Kirkham asked her to be the first in line for the series. “I’m mostly experimenting. The interest comes from loving skateboarding, in all aspects, and years of looking at photos in magazines” says White, corresponding over email. There’s a serendipitous pairing with Kirkham’s transparent intent around design, which is exercised through Wet Proof. Says Kirkham, “I have an interest in a specific peer group who would maybe think about their practices as self-reflexive, exploring theory through production methods, how you can use processes or tools of production to consider design philosophies.”

A spread from 'Wet Proof' by an Endless Supply featuring a photograph by Shari White of skateboarder Lawrence Quero. The same image is printed multiple times each with different treatments applied to the image.

Spreads and treatments from Wet Proof featuring Efron Danzig and Lawrence Quero
An Endless Supply / Robin Kirkham / Shari White

White’s career in skateboarding media began by working with Kirstin Ebeling on The Skate Witches zine and crew videos. In 2020, Vans released Credits, a watershed moment in skateboarding media, with White behind the wheel of the first all-female full-length video produced by a skate footwear brand. (Nike SB’s Gizmo, in 2019, although featuring an all-female cast, was directed by Jason Hernandez.) Credits jumpstarted the careers of Una Farrar, Breana Geering and Fabiana Delfino, who were White’s roommates at the time, as well as that of photographer Norma Ibarra, who was present for much of the making. Filming the video on a Sony A7, a DSLR camera, led White to start taking photographs. In 2021, White co-founded Mess Skate Mag with Ebeling and Jessie Van Roechoudt. The magazine is creatively directed, designed and operated by the trio.

Although becoming increasingly active as a photographer, White still works as a videographer. She directed Keepsake for Vans in 2023, co-directed last year’s Antisocial Summer for Vancouver’s Antisocial Skate Shop with Anjelo Fajardo and the latest in Monster Energy’s Down Straight Up! Series. “I’m generally only shooting something [as a photo] once it has been landed and they can do it pretty easily, so the pressure is lower compared to filming stuff that people might try for hours,” says White on her relationship to the two forms of documentation. “It’s usually a quick opportunity and I try not to bother the skater too much. I’ve probably been thinking about the photo the whole time I’ve been filming.”

'Signature' a publication by An Endless Supply featuring Mark Suciu in 'Verso' is placed flat with a green and red apple atop it, echoing a colour scheme seen on the front cover.

Previous projects by an Endless Supply: Tweaked Modernism for Isle Skateboards and Signature, a print translation of the Mark Suciu’s chiasmus section in Verso. Presented unbound, Signature can be deconstructed so the mirrored tricks can be studied as larger spreads. “There’s something satisfying in the dictation of the form that just perfectly articulates Mark’s concept,” says Kirkham. An Endless Supply / Robin Kirkham

Kirkham co-founded An Endless Supply with Harry Blackett in 2011. Based in Birmingham, UK, the studio undertakes projects in book and digital design as well as website development. Endless Supply have worked with Columbia University, Sternberg Press, Hatje Cantz, Artangel, The Photographer’s Gallery and the Royal College of Art, amongst others. “I had a kind of epiphany,” says Kirkham of finally drawing together skateboarding with his design practice. “The big connection was Nick Jensen and thinking of him and Isle Skateboards straddling this art world, skateboarding world, whereas before I didn’t think I had much to say or contribute to the wider culture.”

“It occurred to me that Nick and I were kind of operating in similar worlds, and what would be the harm in reaching out to him and asking if I could send him some of our stuff? He responded to that generously, a very open-ended invitation that maybe we could do something together with Isle to kind of meet these shared points of interests. That activated my brain thinking about it, feeling that there was more potential for that and more non-magazine print models in skateboarding.”

After producing an insert for Isle’s ‘Tweaked Modernism’ series of boards, Kirkham reached out to Mark Suciu and videographer Justin Albert, leading to Signature, a printed take on Suciu’s mirrored lines as seen in the coda of Verso. “I’ve always been a skateboarding magazine buyer and, for want of a better term, a slight print fetishist. I like well-produced printed things, physical things. I don’t have the journalistic drive but I love skate photography. I suppose I thought, ‘What could my position in that ecology be?’” says Kirkham.

Robin Kirkham with first issue of Wet Proof hot off the press. Skateboarders featured, clockwise from top left and shot by Shari White: Efron Danzig, Dustin Henry, Alexandre Poulin and Justin Henry An Endless Supply

Ultimately, Kirkham considers Wet Proof a space for research and development of his own work, which, by making it accessible, could benefit the creative practices of others. “I essentially wanted an excuse to practice working with images and the reproduction of them that could sit outside actual jobs that the studio has, as a development thing. It felt like it made sense for that source of images to be of personal interest for me. I realised that that output could create this new space, or platform, for skate photography or print media in skateboarding. Something that is free of the trappings of, say, a magazine where it doesn’t have to be economically viable and almost designs itself by the fact that its about me working with the images rather than doing design layouts. There’s something fun, and uncomfortable, to me about doing that learning in public and that can feel like a positive generous thing to share that process even if it is super niche.”

Wet Proof #1: Shari White is available now from An Endless Supply.

Farran Golding is the founding editor of Skate Bylines, a senior correspondent for Quartersnacks, the associate editor at Closer Skateboarding. His writing has also been published in Free Skate Mag, GQ and Huck and his work has been cited in Skateboarding and Senses: Skills, Surfaces and Spaces and The Art of Skating Institutions. Farran is a tutor in multimedia journalism at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Skate Bylines