My personal portrait project, The NY Fighter Project, has been keeping me very busy along with some new editorial projects and other jobs. This post is focusing on the NY Fighter Project’s progress since I can’t post photos from my other work until they are published. Last week I had the privileged opportunity to travel to Ricardo Almeida’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy (link) and photograph some of the professional MMA fighters that train with Almeida as well as at Renzo Gracie’s NYC academy. One of these fighters is the current UFC Lightweight Champion, Frankie Edgar (14-1-1). First of all, I have to give thanks to Ace Ramirez of KRU Muay Thai since he was the man who hooked me up with this particular shoot. He is the only reason that my assistant and I were able to get in there and I am incredibly thankful. I also have to thank one of my best friends for introducing me to Ace. My “brother from another mother” Eric Moy is also responsible for having a hand in this, so thank you Moy!
As you can see, there are a lot of people involved in this project to help get me access to some of these professional MMA fighters. Although I have worked with a lot of pro’s who I have been able to get access to with a simple phone call or email, some of these other guys are not as easy to get a hold of. You see, the higher you get in this sport of MMA, such as promotions you fight for (UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Ring Of Combat, etc.), the more celebrity you gain. For someone like Frankie Edgar, who is currently ranked #4 in the world (Sherdog.com), is one of the highest level celebrities in the sport of MMA.
I’m not 100% sure which one of these will be used for the final series, mainly because they each have something specific that I like about it, but I figured I’d show all three for now. Do you have one in particular you like? If so, leave a comment and let me know.
February 6, 2012
Looking forward to seeing more of these charactor portraits. I really like lighting used in the shot of Ryan and the moods it creates as it falls off his face, leaving shadows remaining in his hood.
Looks a nice simple set-up too – is that a Octabank catchlight I see? ;-)
February 6, 2012
Thanks Dave. This project has been a lot of fun and very interesting so far. Yes, that is the Elinchrom 39″ Deep Octa that I usually use in my portraiture. I’ll be posting more in detail about this project later on with lighting set up, how and why I chose to persue this project, and some other details.