Kerry Skarbakka is a photographer by profession, yet his predilection for danger makes his job description at least part-daredevil. Known as the Falling Photographer, he takes action photos of himself right in the middle of a plummet.
Jumping off a balcony onto the ground? He’s got one. Leaping out of a dilapidated building in Sarajevo? Hey, look. Slipping off a ladder and falling? Quite a sight to behold. Capturing himself frozen in a moment of peril, all the images are taken just before the inevitable impact, leaving you guessing as to which body part could hit a surface first.
As the Falling Photographer, Kerry has traveled both near and far, searching for suitable locations to document his craft. Many of them are real leaps of faith, with no safety equipment to aid him if things should go wrong. Others, however, are a mere trick of the eye, shot with cleverly hidden climbing gear and cushioned landings. The resulting photographs, however, remain striking.
According to the artist, he first began taking the themed pictures to cope with the helplessness he felt after the 9/11 attacks. He currently has a small collection of 40 different photographs in his roster, all of which have been shown in galleries around the world. His current goal is to shoot enough material to be able to publish a book of his work.
Click on the links below to see more samples of Kerry’s images.