This spring found me in Times Square helping out the wonderful Sari Goodfriend with the NYCSalt photography program, which helps inner-city kids learn photography.  That day I worked with Lenice Diaz, a high school student in the program, and she’s writing today’s blog post about her day and showing us the images she made then.

Typical Tourist by Lenice Diaz

For some, photography is the act of taking and printing photographs. Photography for me is exploring, interpreting, and capturing the unique relationships between people and their environment.

Nature, by far, is my favorite subject to photograph. As a student in NYCSalt, I am able to go places with my class where I can further my love of photographing nature, however, as a photographer living in NYC, I’ve noticed that nature is hard to find. This has brought me to the love of a new subject, one I call urban nature.

Urban nature is any permanent object in the city such as concrete, metal, mailboxes, trains, etc. I naturally found myself being drawn to the way New Yorkers interact with these objects.

In these four images, sports photographer David Foster was mentoring me.  When we started working together I explained to him that  42^nd street was difficult for me because I was more of a single object, nature photographer and not so much a crowded shot, people person. At that point he began to give me a lot of ideas and at one point I told him “You know, I feel like I am in such a block and all these ideas are yours.” and he simply responded to me “If I would have shot that, it would have been a completely different picture.” These words really resonated with me because being in a photography class with 12 other students, we are often given the same assignment but come back with very different products.

Since I was so used to photographing nature, approaching people and asking to photograph them was difficult for me. The police officer Romina actually got out of her cop car to let me shoot her.  It was a really great experience interacting with her, and I was comfortable enough to ask if I could shoot her again in profile.

My next two photographs were very abstract, with all the stripes and lines. In the photo titled Yellow you see a very clear structure of lines of different lengths and textures. In the photo Crosswalk again you see a very clear linear structure. I was very intrigued by the concept of inserting a subject into the frame. I was really happy in this case that it worked out quite well.

Want to hire Lenice?  Call her on 646.409.0607!

Some people cast long shadows in life – important teachers, coaches and mentors of every sort – certain individuals influence the lives of others in a disproportionate way.  This week, under the relentless Boston heat, a group of kids are under just that kind of shadow.

By all accounts, Ucal McKenzie was an inspiration to nearly everyone he was involved with, as a soccer coach, player and teammate.  As one of my close friends reported, “he was the one who smiled and made friends with that guy who everyone wanted to punch in the face.”  As I’ve reported in this space before, his wife Suzanne has set up a foundation in memory of his life after his sudden and untimely death.

Suzanne’s persistent dedication to her husbands legacy through the Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation has gained considerable support from the community and this week I witnessed the most important manifestation of all the hard work: youth soccer clinics held at The Winsor School in Boston.

The most important work being done at these clinics is not about soccer – it’s about developing responsible, well-rounded kids. Athletics is merely the vehicle through which the message is sent.  Walking through the drills and practices, the coaches spend as much time emphasizing character development as they do soccer style.   Instead of shouting, shaming or demanding performance, the coaches stop to talk to the kids to find a way to help them.  Suzanne spent a good part of the day with a boy who claimed injury, but seemed to just need someone to talk to.

The foundation’s mission honors her husband’s legacy in other related ways, including guidance on nutrition, first aid and an emphasis on being a a team mate and leader.  Instead of driving kids to win at any cost or idolize stars with questionable character, the foundation’s clinics patiently and effectively send the message of dedication and personal responsibility.

Driving away from the field, I couldn’t help but think that Suzanne was beginning to cast a long shadow of her own.

I’m not a big fan of the summer – it’s the heat, really, it’s never been one of my favorite things.  But there is a silver lining to the summer weather, and that’s dramatic light.  It’s been a typical hot and sticky stretch where I live for the last few weeks, but yesterday the post-thunderstorm light show at home was worth seeing.

Last week I was happy to be a part of helping G-Form, new company that is launching some pretty cool new bike products, with their first images.

Our model Ian had just completed the Ironman 1/2 triathlon that morning, and good-naturedly put up with my requests to ride more in the stifling heat.

Road bike sunset

Years ago at the beginning of my career, I used to work with the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the world’s largest rowing events.  We published a poster and a 32 page glossy program for each year’s event, and on the day of the races, I could see people flipping through the pages of the program and buying the poster as I walked through the crowd on the banks of the Charles River in Boston.   One memory is particularly vivid: two young women, still dressed in their school racing uniforms, looking at one of my posters displayed for sale, excitedly pointing to the image and telling their parents that this is what it’s like. This is what rowing in a race is like; I want this, I want you to have this, hang it up, so you know what I’m doing when I’m rowing.

I’ve been involved in athletics longer than I’ve been a photographer, (my first team experience was at 8 years old) and my work has almost always had a connection to competition, training or the life of a practicing athlete.  It is what I feel, it is what I relate to, and it’s the wheel I want to put my shoulder against in the area of public media.

There is a lot of money to be made promoting consumer goods that do not benefit us as a society – cigarettes come to mind immediately – but I’ve always been comfortable bringing an active, healthy and athletic lifestyle to pages of magazines and to the forefront of people’s minds.  Although some of the professional athletes I’ve shot have very publicly demonstrated poor judgement, others have been spectacular examples of achievement.   I don’t think that any vocation is completely devoid of valid criticism or shortcomings, and promoting products and services related to sports, athletics and training has always sat pretty well in my conscience.

The real heroes of my work, however, are the non-professional athletes I’ve photographed.  The obstacles they overcome are often greater than the pros – disease, accidents, lack of family or community support.   Sometimes the biggest hurdle is a distinct lack of athletic talent or the heavy inertia of a overburdened and unhealthy lifestyle, especially now that is is far too easy and acceptable culturally to eat fast food in front of the television every night.

So it is particularly fitting that I became involved in a project for CrossFit. (You can read my original post about shooting the video for them here.)  The group collectively is the embodiment of healthy, non-professional athletes of all types.  The workouts – olympic style lifting, gymnastics, running, rowing, and body weight exercises – are performed together, as a group, and it’s everything your aerobics and spinning class is not.  It’s loud, it’s varied, it’s challenging and supportive.  It’s physiologically healthy and balanced, and you have to attend every day for months before a particular workout repeats.  The atmosphere is lively, encouraging and friendly and they help with nutritional counseling, local farm initiatives and support fundraising for charities and medical research.

The voiceovers were unscripted, the talent undirected and the enthusiasm is real.

Last week in Times Square I was both fortunate and happy to help Sari Goodfriend teach a group of high school students who were in an after-school program for photography.  We met at the red stairs on 47th amid the endless lines of tourists on a surprisingly cold day.

I had spent a couple of days in the city with both work and social obligations, and I had no idea what to expect from the kids or myself.  (There may be a few things I can do, but I’m not sure teaching is one of them.)  All the kids showed up with cameras – one with a dead battery – and Sari had her list of things she wanted the kids to shoot.  I paired up with Lenice, a senior in high school, and off we went to shoot something abstract and something that involved someone on the street.

It was hard to avoid the comparison between these kids and my own high school experiences with photography. I had a darkroom with one of my closest friends in his parents’ basement where we developed film, prints, and discussed the finer points of being a teenager – sometimes, it’s a lot easier to say something in the glow of a safelight.  Unbelievably, we used a grain focuser on the enlarger and slid the prints into chemical trays.   But as my son likes to remind me, I was in high school right after they invented light, so a lot has changed.

But that change – digital, autofocus, the web, cameras that shoot motion – has not affected these kids because they grew up texting from their cribs. They don’t need a conference on social networking, they need guidance on how to deal with people who go to conferences like that.   In contrast to the work obligations that were either centered around or haunted by the recent changes that technology and the economy have brought to photography, Lenice and her friends were all about taking pictures, and it was a welcome surprise to experience the refreshing enthusiasm for simply telling the story of what one sees.

It took the excitement of these kids to demonstrate by contrast just how much the professional community talks (and complains) about the business and the struggle that rapid technological change brings,   Yes, I know, these kids don’t have mortgages, tuition bills, and their biggest concern is an algebra test and a date to the prom.  Regardless, it struck me just how much the love of the craft has been missing from what I experience in the commercial world.

So to my new friend Lenice, shown here after overcoming her fear of law enforcement and convincing a police officer to let her photograph the reflections in the cruiser’s windshield: thanks for letting me join your class and I’m looking forward to coming back again soon.

Lenice and her new best friend.

I’m happy to be in Los Angeles today for the start of the Ucal McKenzie Foundation function with the LA Galaxy and the New England Revolution.

I’ve been working with Suzanne from The Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation since last year.  She’s dedicated, determined and thoughtful about the foundation’s mission: to honor her late husband’s involvement in young soccer players’ lives by promoting the high values of soccer and healthy lifestyle through camps, nutritional information and counseling kids about preparing themselves for not only competition on the field but life off of it.

It’s truly an honor to work with Suzanne and the Foundation – there’s no lack of requests for help these days, but her mission is a vital one today.  Too many kids are unhealthy in many ways, and the work she is starting will make a great impact on many lives.  I’ve been lucky to be in on not only photography, but making connections with other organizations and people who can help.

Her work is also very close to my own heart – I have been involved in athletics since I was young.  Although there is money to be made in photography that publicizes things that are not very healthy,  I’ve always been drawn to photographing people involved in their sports.  While we do shoot famous athletes from time to time, I believe it’s important to showcase the everyday athlete, for that is who we all are, especially after our time in the spotlight is over.

My intention is for my images promote athleticism, to contribute to someone re-connecting with their workouts, their sport, or a new adventure.  When I see or hear of that happening, it’s much more satisfying than the check that comes at the end of the job.

So today, we are off to meet some pro soccer players, escort the winners of Suzanne’s contest to the practice field, and continue to spread the word that her late husband left us with: dedication, discipline, determination.

As my son can attest, there are certainly some strange aspects to having a father as a commercial photographer – odd work schedule, crew dinners at the house, stories of famous athletes and cranky models.  As a little guy, he grew up spending days hanging around the studio teaching clients how to use the “new” iMacs, getting rides in the motor home and doing film tests.  He’s learned to look at both advertising and photography with a more realistic, if slightly jaded, point of view.

Now as a teenager, he’s drafted into far more exciting endeavors on set – carrying sandbags, setting up lights and hanging out in the back of the box truck.

A few nights ago the two of us are in the kitchen, telling stories and catching up from the day.  As he’s flipping through a magazine he blurts out, “Dude, my alarm clock is in ESPN!”

Indeed it was.  I had grabbed his clock out of his room to use as a prop for the ads we did with Libby Delana from Mechanica.  Through the magic of the production cycle, he was looking at a picture in a magazine of his clock that sat upstairs in his room.