October 2009

Brian Lesteberg attended the Minneapolis College of Art in Design, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Photography. He currently lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some of his clients include The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, and Time. Of this series, Raised to Hunt, he says, ‘My father raised me to be a hunter. Every fall, since my twelfth birthday, we’ve followed the migratory birds that descend from Canada to central North Dakota. Approaching manhood, I’ve become more aware of nature’s vulnerability, especially as I master field dressing wild game for evening meals. Exhausting and exhilarating, the time I spend with my father in the field has become a ritual as steady as the migrations they depend on. My photographs are witness to this ritual and its place in the layered order of the natural world’. His work is currently being shown at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Seventeen-year-old Leila Berney was born in Geneva, Switzerland. She currently lives in Sydney where she has just graduated high school. She uses Canon EOS 400D and does not yet have Photoshop, but she does have creativity, great ideas and concepts to unleash, and a passion for photography.

Kirsten Wilmink recently graduated from the ArtEZ AKI Academy of Visual Arts in Photographic Design and is continuing her studies at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. As a cross media designer Wilmink’s main focus is staged photography. Her graduation project, The Truth About Germans, depicts stereotypes and the existing prejudices about German people in which she used her own family members as models. Of her work she says, ‘With drinking beer and eating bratwurst with potato salad the family Meier from Meppen spends its daily life. Just like every other German family, they are always in a bad mood, members of the local football and shooting club and proud owners of a garden plot. Internationally they are well-known for their narrow-minded petty bourgeois mentality and their very special dress style: socks, Birkenstock sandals and traditional Bavarian Lederhosen’. Her work is currently on view at Cabinodd Collections in Amsterdam.

Jason Gould’s passion for sports photography goes back to 1985 when he was building snowboard jumps with friends and photographing each other launching skyward. After attending college at UNH Jason spent his twenties traveling and competing internationally as a road cyclist. In 1999 Jason traded in his life on the bike race circuit to move back to NYC and start focusing on a career in photography. In the ten years since, Jason progressed from cyclist to photographer, he has been shooting for clients such as Adidas, Cannondale, Foot Locker, Gatorade, Jetblue, Nike, and Reebok, and editorially for Bicycling, Runners World, Seed, Slam, Trace, Ware, and Wad, among others. Most weekends of the year you can find him in a whitewater kayak somewhere in the northeast, all too often upside down.

How did you first become aware of Street Soccer USA and what made you start documenting homeless soccer players?
‘My agent came across an article in the NY Times about homeless soccer and we both felt like it could be a great idea for a personal project. I went to meet the team from NYC and the director of the program and they were excited to invite me along to photograph them in Washington DC at the National Championships and then on to Milan Italy for the World Cup’.

You’ve mainly concentrated on shooting the men on the field and the surrounding area. Have you thought about photographing them in their environments as well?
‘For me, the project is about sport more than what goes on away from the soccer pitch for these players. The focus of most of my work is based in sports and I think it’s great to be able to photograph these guys in the context of athletics, which I believe brings out the best in all of us. I think the arena of athletics is a great equalizer of people. I look at these guys as athletes first and foremost but, of course, I can’t help but have a little added respect for them because I know they face very serious challenges on a day to day basis that most of my other subjects never have to contend with’.

You’ve shot matches at Chelsea Piers (NYC), the 16-city national homeless soccer championship in Washington, DC, and the Homeless Soccer World Cup in Italy. Have you followed one team throughout this experience and what changes over time have you seen in the men that you’ve photographed?
‘The team that went to Italy was a selection of the best players from the National tournament in DC, players from all over the US. I can’t say that I had enough time with them to notice changes but I did get the sense from everyone that they were all very good-hearted people who were genuinely aspiring to better their lives. They seemed to really enjoy the camaraderie of being part of a team and working together towards a goal. I think it was a dream come true to be able to travel to Milan and compete with athletes from around the world for all the players involved. No matter what country they were from and there were 45 countries represented there was an immense amount of respect for each other because they all have shared such similar life experiences. It was clear that there was a deep connection among all the players in that they were all survivors before they were lucky enough to be athletes’.

While photographing The World Cup in Italy, you stayed in a tent with some of the players. Can you tell us about this experience?
‘All of the athletes (about 500) were put up in a tent city on a military base some distance from the arena. Each country had its own tent and decorated it with their countries flag. The commute back and forth from camp to the arena was about an hour each way involving walking, a subway ride and a bus. It was a lot to do twice a day for guys that were playing their hearts out in the hot sun. I heard a comment from a player one day when he was joking around with a teammate. He said: “I went from being homeless to living in a concentration camp”, with a smile on his face. From what I have been told, some of the other countries that have hosted the World Cup event have offered more comfortable living arrangements but everyone made the best of it. Needless to say, it had its challenges’.

What goals or expectations did you have for the series from the start? Was this assignment personal or commissioned?
‘This was a personal assignment from the get go. My goals are always the same: to make beautiful photos that capture the qualities of athletes that we all aspire to possess — grace, pride, power, heart, focus, and humility, to name a few. I’m really happy with the images that came from this story. It was a very positive experience I feel very fortunate to have been able to be part of’.

Liz Cockrum was born and raised in Chicago, IL. After earning her BFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago, Liz moved to her current home in San Diego to nurture her passion for surfing. Through photography, Liz seeks to reveal little-seen elements of environments, cultures, and people to her viewers. Her current body of work, Sirens, focuses on female surfers in Southern California. She states, ‘My intention with this body of work is to celebrate the courageous and innovative females who are pioneering this shift towards a more positive, open surf culture. These images speak to broader ideas related to women in modern society, the power of determination and sub-cultures within a larger community. Through portraits, landscapes and details I want to focus the viewer’s attention on the individuals who are an integral part of a unique culture’. When Liz is not photographing, you can find her surfing, cooking, dabbling in mixed-media arts, or making plans to travel abroad. Her work is represented by Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, California.

After working for fourteen years as a 3D and CG artist on movies, tv and commercials, Bas Uterwijk has been employed as an Art-Director on the Playstation3 game “Killzone2″ for Sony Computer Entertainment for the last three years. He will be available for freelance photography work from March 2009 on. Of this project he says, ‘The ancient art of Kushti wrestling is still practiced in large parts of India and Pakistan. Most schools (akhara’s) are adapting to international wrestling competition rules by alternatively training on an indoor mat next to the traditional sand pit. The sand is mixed with mustard oil, milk or ghee and has a very historic and symbolic meaning to the fighters: it represents Mother India herself. Most wrestlers permanently live inside the akhara. They follow a strict vegetarian diet and extremely intense training schedule. These photos were taken within a period of one week in three akhara’s in New Delhi India in August 2009′.

Photo by Aya Brackett

Photo by Jade Doskow

Photo by Philippe Herbert

Photo by Aya Brackett

Photo by Sean Gilligan

Sage Sohier has been photographing people in their environments since she graduated from Harvard University in 1976. Her monograph, “Perfectible Worlds” was published in 2007. Other series have included, “Mother,” “Peaceable Kingdom” (people and their animals), “At Home with Themselves: Gay and Lesbian Couples,” and “About Face” (people with facial paralysis). She has been awarded John Simon Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Her work on assignment has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, LIFE, Newsweek, Outside, and Oprah Magazine, and she has taught photography at a number of schools in the Boston area, most recently Harvard University and Massachusetts College of Art. She has exhibited widely, and is represented by Foley Gallery in NY.

Your Perfectable Worlds series (and monograph) features people with odd jobs, hobbies, and preoccupations. How did you go about finding and photographing the subjects for this series and how long do you spend with your subjects before pulling out the camera?
‘For “Perfectible Worlds,” I found my subjects mainly through word-of-mouth. I told all my friends, acquaintances, and people I met what I was working on. I also researched online – looking up hobby clubs, and e-mailing people about what I was doing. Many of the people I photographed knew other people, and so a network evolved. I usually spent half an hour to an hour talking to people and looking at their creations before beginning to photograph. Sometimes more than half my time was spent in this way’.

Can you talk about photographing the cat in the dollhouse?
‘Anne P. was showing me her pre-Civil War dollhouse when her cat jumped in. “Purrl” was very delicate, somehow managing not to upset any furniture and not to step on the baby or the miniature Corgi. All the while, Anne’s two real-life Corgis were barking wildly in the back yard, undoubtedly jealous of the attention that Purrl was getting’.

What are some of the more interesting commissions you’ve received due to this work?
‘The New York Times Magazine ran a number of the “Perfectible World” pictures as I was taking them in their column, “What they were Thinking.” Newsweek hired me to photograph students at a Mortuary School, and AARP hired me to photograph a family of Tai Kwon Do medalists at their home in Texas. My commercial Rep in NY is Bill Charles, who is great at finding artists editorial and advertising work based on their personal work’.

Many of your images feature pets. Is this just a personal preference for photographing animals or are there other reasons for doing this?
‘In the 90’s, I did a series called “Peaceable Kingdom” (about people and their pets), which I’m working on again currently. When I was growing up in Virginia, my family always had four dogs, as well as the occasional cat, rabbits, and a blue jay that we rescued, raised, and set free. So, I am drawn to animals and love the relaxed chaos that ensues in their presence’.

Going into a shoot, do you have specific ideas on how you want to shoot your subjects, or do you generally just go with the flow?
‘I always have ideas going in to a shoot, and they usually have nothing to do with what actually happens/ how the picture turns out. But if I didn’t spend that time imagining the possibilities in advance, I doubt that the pictures would have the same energy’.

Jiri Makovec lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, Phillips de Pury & Company Auctions’ Change of Art and All Grown Up, the ChobiMela International Festival of Photography in Bangladesh, and the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan. Of this work, Tales From The island, he writes, ‘Within the city’s rigid grid, moments of mystery and terror unveil, and are captured as a series of encounters and events. Whether the viewer is facing truth or fiction, this body of work shows the photographers’ relationship to the city, that is also known as “the arena for the terminal stage of Western civilization”‘ (R. Koolhaas).