Big T Makes Memories

Anthony Del Togno Armanasco for Alright Magazine

Introduction: Taylor Leng
Interview and Photography: Miles Johnson

Every city and every town has its driving force of skaters keeping the scene alive. Many have different sects, who skate in a specific way or in a specific style. Anthony and his crew of Portland chargers have the unique ability to attack the city in ways yet to be defined in the Pacific Northwest. From downtown antics to hectic hill bombs, the LC crew represents Portland in a raw and real way that makes observers reevaluate what is possible on a skateboard. 

They’re hyped, and they’re hungry. We got to speak to Anthony and pick his brain behind his latest photographic venture, a lo-fi DIY zine that reflects on sessions past while providing stoke for the future.

How does it feel seeing other people flip through the zine and react to it?

It’s pretty cool to see other people’s reactions cus I dunno, when I make them I think they’re cool… But I don’t know what anyone else is gonna think. If someone’s stoked on it, that’s awesome, and that gets me hyped cus I just put some stoke in someone.

When you made your first zine, did you have a clear goal of what you wanted to make? Or was it just messing around and experimenting?

It was completely just experimenting and wanting to do something. It was deep in the winter, and I had a bunch of photos that I was just like ‘Oh that’d be cool to make into something’. And then I just went to my room and was playing music and zoning out, just lining photos up. I had pieces of paper, just putting shit together. So it was completely just throwing photos together, and then it turned out to be something and I was like ‘Oh I could just make copies of this’. Nobody ever told me how to do anything. I just thought oh this might work, if I do this or do that. I’m still figuring it out as it’s going, I guess. 

“Nobody ever told me how to do anything. I just thought, ‘Oh this might work, if I do this or do that.’ I’m still figuring it out as it’s going.”

Kind of like skateboarding… you don’t really learn from anyone. No matter what, you have to figure it out yourself. There’s no tutorials or anything. 

Yeah and even if there is, you’re still gonna go out and put the time in to learn it yourself. Someone can tell you to place your foot like this or that, but you’re still gonna have to find out what works for you. 

Yeah, 100%. I like that part of it.
Did you grow up in Portland?

Yeah, born and raised, baby (laughs). Over in Northeast. I like this city a lot. It’s really dope. You can just chill in nature and get grounded, and you can go skate and go spaz out in downtown, it’s dope. And I like how everything is hard to skate. 

Like the spots aren’t easy? 

Yeah definitely a lot of spots are really weird. You’ve got to figure shit out. I like to figure shit out when I skate. 

You think there’s a similarity between figuring out stuff when you skate and putting together layouts for the zine?

I’d say it’s probably the same mental process. You’re just figuring out how something is gonna work in the moment, so yeah I’d say it’s similar. I never really thought about it like that. 

You traveled overseas recently, where’d you go?

Malmö, Copenhagen, and Paris. That was my first time ever being out of the country, right after I graduated high school, so it was a total trip. 

You shoot photos when you went traveling?

Yeah, shot a lot of photos. I had a fractured elbow, so I was mainly shooting. I wasn’t skating and I needed some shit to focus on outside of my self. In an artistic way, I guess.  Being there watching Tao who films for Polar… that dude is really awesome and super inspiring. He’s super talented at filming and taking photos. And he’s really awesome to talk to about that shit.

Do you think the act of taking pictures and putting together the zine, does that help remember this stuff?

100%. My memory is so bad. I have like the worst memory ever, and so many things that I’ll do that were like the funnest shit ever I’ll just forget. It’s sick to look at a photo have to think back to when that was and be like ‘Oh shit!’ — it sparks my memory. 

I feel you. Is that why you titled this one Spark?

I kinda wanted it to be like one word, simple. And cus sometimes you just need that spark to get you stoked. You need to watch that skate video to get you sparked to go skate and get inspired. I want to have someone go through the book and get sparked to go do whatever!

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