Iconic photos captures the bay's '90s hip hop and skating scene

By Sam MondrosPublished Nov. 13, 2024 • 3:11pm

Jacob Rosenberg, like many people, misses the ’90s.

More than most who feel nostalgia, Rosenberg actually spent those years documenting just what was so magical about the period. The 51-year-old filmmaker, born and raised in Palo Alto, is known as one of the preeminent documentarians of San Francisco’s 1990s skateboard scene — a movement whose mecca was the Embarcadero Plaza.

Rosenberg has photographed portraits of skateboarding’s biggest icons; he was also essential in chronicling East Bay hip-hop groups such as Hieroglyphics and De La Soul. Now he’s publishing “Right Before My Eyes,” a monograph that details Bay Area skate and hip-hop culture from 1988 to 1998.

“This book is insanely personal,” Rosenberg, who lives in Hollywood, told The Standard. “I am very nostalgic, and I feel like the 1990s is an era that keeps getting discussed socially, with respect to attitude and fashion trends.”

A cluttered room with posters on the walls and two people sitting on a bed. The room has a reddish hue, and there's a mix of personal items and furniture. — Jacob Rosenberg's room at home in Palo Alto in 1989, the cusp of a new decade. | Source: Jacob Rosenberg

The image shows a person seated outdoors in black and white, surrounded by leafy trees and a shaded patio. The focus is soft, giving a serene, relaxed atmosphere. — A self-portrait by Rosenberg at home in Palo Alto in 1994. | Source: Jacob Rosenberg

During his senior year of high school, Rosenberg skipped sixth period 35 times to film skate videos in San Francisco, eventually dropping out to become a culture documentarian. His work throughout his teenage years and early 20s chronicling skateboarding and hip-hop — two cultures seen retrospectively as inextricable from each other — is considered some of the greatest ever made.

“He really did make some of the most iconic skate videos in the early ’90s and worked with some of the actual central players in that world,” Ted Barrow, an art historian and skateboarder, told The Standard.“Asking when I first heard of Jacob Rosenberg — it’s like asking ‘When did you first hear of Steven Spielberg?’”

A person in a plaid shirt and blue cap is playing a retro arcade game. The scene is in a dimly lit arcade with others in the background. — Up close with Del The Funky Homosapien at a Berkeley arcade in 1993. | Source: Jacob Rosenberg

A skateboarder performs an aerial trick, wearing a helmet and pads. A cheering spectator watches, and graffiti decorates the skate park in the background. — Sean Sheffey performs a tuck knee during "Back to the City," a skate contest in 1991 in San Francisco. | Source: Jacob Rosenberg

Rosenberg’s photos open a door to a world that only a few were a part of, yet came to shape so much of our understanding of the era. The book is packed with photos from recording sessions and skate competitions and ephemera such as mixtape notes, floppy disks, and more.

Rosenberg noticed a growing sentimentality toward the ’90s during the pandemic years. As people have sought to reconnect with their communities, he offers “the book “Right Before My Eyes” as a way to look backward and forward. “Hopefully, the book is inspiring about how you can be connected and the ways you can go back to finding those connections.”