Fulfill the Dream

Muse Magazine

by Francesca Fontanesi

April 23, 2024

Fuilfill the Dream

Capturing the essence of skate culture alongside personal evolution. In the new photographic book Fulfill The Dream, Magdalena Wosinska commits an unfiltered journey to paper.

Fulfill the Dream is the new documentary photobook by Polish photographer Magdalena Wosinska, capturing the American skate culture of the 1990s through snapshots in color and black and white. The energy and creativity of this counterculture have influenced fashion, music, and artistic expression for an entire generation of Americans: the book features Chad Muska, Austyn Gillette, Jim Greco, Harold Hunter, Ed Templeton, Eric Ellington, Ali Boulala, and many other skaters now recognized worldwide. Beyond the broader examination of American skate subculture, Wosinska’s project is a deeply personal journey through her adolescence and an exploration of what it means to be a misfit in a world of misfits.

In a subculture known for its masculinity, almost blasé and permissive, claiming space as a teenage woman is a pure act of audacity. In this photographic diary, the raw and visceral images captured by Wosinska and her self-portraits are juxtaposed with the budding moments of future skate icons: focusing primarily on the West Coast – with a few brief stops in New York – Wosinska has chronicled a time of skateboarding transformation, when the phenomenon evolved into a profitable profession. She immortalized names like Chad Muska, Ed Templeton, and Eric Ellington, while simultaneously documenting her own personal metamorphosis, which we could define as a navigating toward femininity, identity, but also fear of rejection. Magdalena Wosinska thus captures the dualities that have shaped her life: the joy and euphoria of skateboarding, meaningful human connections, drug dependency, prejudices, the deep need to find a sense of belonging, and struggles with mental health. Shortly after immigrating to the United States from communist Poland in 1991, Wosinska used her camera to confront the cultural shock. The camera became her passport to a world dominated mainly by boys and a language to integrate and form genuine friendships in the skateboarding communities. Through raw and visceral portraits and self-portraits, created in opposition to the male-dominated scene, she captured the now-famous adolescent spirit of the Go, reflecting the ever-shifting balance between the highs and lows of belonging and the essence of years of photographer dreams realization through perseverance and hard work. Alongside the existential anguish of the time, the project explores themes of resilience, female emancipation, and the relentless pursuit of one’s goals.

“This title means so many things to me. It’s about finding my femininity for the first time in the last 40 years. What it was like, coming to a whole new culture and country from Communist Poland, being one of the only girls at the skatepark in Phoenix in the mid Nineties”. - Magdalena Wosinska

The constant need for acceptance, fueled by the desire to become a photographer, is universal in this project. For Wosinska, it remains a guiding light through difficulties, shaping both her career and interpersonal bonds. Embracing the theme of vulnerability – albeit at a cost – individual insecurities are transformed into strength. This book offers an unfiltered look into her artistic journey; a visual memoir, a semi-chronological monologue: this is Magdalena in her own words and photographs, raw and unfiltered. Fulfill The Dream is a story of promises kept and fulfilled, of a dream achieved.