Patrick O’Dell’s blog Epicly Later’d was a chaotic archive of skateboarding, New York nightlife and everything in between. Now, almost 20 years later, it’s back in book form, published by Anthology Editions
Before social media algorithms dictated what we saw or liked, blogs were where individuality thrived – spaces for unfiltered content, often paired with 300-image photo dumps and your favourite song on autoplay. The early 2000s internet felt like the Wild West: chaotic, lawless and open to anyone with a camera, a few lines of code and a vision.
Platforms like Myspace, Blogger and LiveJournal were fertile ground for niche communities to grow, and Patrick O’Dell’s blog, Epicly Later’d, thrived in this arable landscape. Launched in 2004, Epicly Later’d quickly became the go-to for skaters, artists and downtown New Yorkers alike, documenting the mayhem of youth culture, city nightlife and behind-the-scenes stories of pro skaters with his raw and gritty lens. His camera froze moments from parties, skate sessions and whatever else caught his eye, with familiar faces like Chloë Sevigny, Benjamin Cho and Tino Razo appearing in the frames. O-Dell was inspired by Amy Kellner’s blog Teenage Unicorn, and wanted to approach his own work with the same spontaneous and personal ethos, while avoiding anything too polished. Skate magazines like Thrasher were also dominating the mainstream at the time (to which O-Dell was the photo editor), and Epicly Later’d provided the counter-narrative: the messy, the in-between, the real.
Now, nearly two decades later, Epicly Later’d has taken on a new form – a photography book published by Anthology Editions. Edited by Jesse Pearson and featuring an introduction by Amy Kellner – the Teenage Unicorn, who’s also a writer, editor and photo editor – the book compiles some of the best images from the original source. In this Q&A, Port chats to Patrick O’Dell about the origins of Epicly Later’d and why, after all these years, the time felt right to bring this project back to life.
How did you become interested in skateboarding and photography – what sparked it and the relationship between the two?
I took a few photography classes in school, but my interest really took off when I started skateboarding and reading skate magazines. At that time pro skaters were measured by their photos just as much or even more than contest placing. Spike Jonze shot the best skate photos in my opinion at the time, so all the skaters he shot with were who I liked the best. And mimicking him was what I was trying to do when I went out skateboarding.
How did you come to develop this snapshot, ‘unfiltered’ aesthetic?
I think at some point I got into Nan Goldin, Jim Goldberg, or Richard Billingham’s book Ray’s a Laugh. I had some photography teachers that were complaining about some of them saying “they use the cheapest film and the worst cameras” and I identified with trying to shoot like that.
You debuted Epicly Later’d at a time when the internet was in its infancy, how did you come up with the idea?
I was copying Amy Kellner’s blog Teenage Unicorn. I was obsessed with looking at it every day and I basically asked her how to do it. Which camera to buy, which programs to use, how to get a domain name.
The book is being released almost 20 years after the blog’s debut. Why was now the right time to compile these moments into a publication?
I was kinda between jobs and had some free time. Originally I was going to self publish a set of books, one at a time, maybe a few hundred copies. But Jesse Pollock from Anthology saw what I was doing and offered to publish. I liked Anthology because they did a book with Tino Razo and one with Jerry Hsu and I wanted to be next to them.
Can you talk about the process of selecting the images for this book?
I went through every photo I ever took from that era and dragged them into a folder, I eliminated film photos as well as anything for work. I stopped when I got to iPhone photos. Jesse Pearson edited the book and helped me narrow it down further and Su Barber laid it out.
What did you seek to capture in your photos?
I guess I wanted the book to be fun, and also kinda wholesome. No one is doing drugs on camera and no one is doing anything embarrassing other than dated fashion. I guess I wanted to make life seem fun and adventurous. I also wanted to tell a daily story.
The blog and book both capture a sense of raw, unfiltered emotion. What approach do you take in your photography to maintain that authenticity, especially when photographing friends and peers?
I’ve found that it usually comes out naturally with the pictures of friends, or if you admire the person or want to communicate what it is you love about the person. I’ve had jobs or projects that I wasn’t as connected to and the pictures sometimes came out stiff.
The blog predated social media’s explosion. How do you think Epicly Later’d would have been received if it were launched today in the age of Instagram and TikTok?
I’m not sure it would have been so big. I had an advantage of being an early adopter. There were very few other ways of looking into NY nightlife everyday like that, or looking at what pro skaters were doing in between skate sessions.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on new episodes of the unrelated Vice show called Epicly Later’d, it’s a show about Skateboard History. It’s on Vice’s Youtube channel. Our next episode is about Atiba Jefferson, who is an amazing photographer that needs to come out with a 500-page oversized book asap.
Epicly Later’d is published by Anthology Editions and available here
