As a restless teenager in Houston in the 80s, Kenneth Cappello thrived on unbridled adventure and risktaking. Before long, he made friends with the local misfits and skateboarding and punk. “It was what we lived for,” describes Cappello. “It was life; it was ‘skate or die!” It was also around that time that his dad bought him a cheap point and shoot camera to keep him busy. For the hell of it, Cappello starting taking pictures wherever he went with his friends. With those impromptu sessions, he unwittingly documented a portrait of a suburban subculture in the 80s; he also developed the brazen, off-the-cuff photographic approach that has come to define his later work. In Aperature’s book Acid Drop, Cappello’s formative, awkward years spent on the halfpipe and behind the lens are chronicled and placed into context of his now career.
