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NY Fighter Project :: Frankie Edgar

02.20.2012no commentsPortrait

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.

NY Fighter Project Preview

02.03.20122 commentsPhotography

For the past month I have been working on a personal project that I’ve titled the NY Fighter Project (tentative title). Although it is still in the very early stages, I thought that I’d give a preview into the project and show a few portraits. I have photographed 10 mixed martial arts fighters for this project so far and have an end goal of at least 50 portraits, so there’s a lot more work to be done. To give a very brief explanation of what I’m doing, I’m creating portraits of NY based MMA fighters and showing more than just a fighter in their portrait. I have a lot of shooting planned this month for the project and am very excited to continue working on this. The project has been gaining a lot of interest from the New York MMA community so I’m focused on making sure that I do the best that I can to help bring MMA to New York. As a huge fan of the sport since the early 90′s, I am really looking forward to being able to see an event at Madison Square Garden very soon.

Ryan Needle – Long Island MMA

Ryan LaFlare – Long Island MMA – Ring Of Combat Welterweight Champion – 6-0

Dennis Bermudez – Long Island MMA – The Ultimate Fighter Finalist – 7-3

To get more information on the progress of legalizing MMA in New York, keep an eye on The Fight Lawyer and NY MMA Now – Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York.

James Bristow

01.17.2012one commentPortrait

James Bristow is a New York City based actor and model with a drive to succeed unlike anyone I’ve met in quite some time. I first met James when I photographed his roommate and long time friend Tavish O’Keefe (see Tavish’s photos here). We had some time to talk about what he has been working on since his move to NYC from Alaska and what he would like to accomplish in his career in 2012. Bristow knew that his head shots and creative portraits were not exactly “good quality” and wanted to schedule a shoot with me after seeing my work. A few weeks after first meeting James, I had him in front of my camera and the following portraits were created for him. We decided to shoot a variety of looks for his modeling portfolio and his website.

Our shoot started in James’ friend’s Brooklyn apartment. The light that poured into that room was simply beautiful, so I decided to only shoot available light with a little help from a silver reflector held by my assistant Dan. The portraits that were created in the apartment were to show natural and relaxed moments.

Our art director for James’ shoot kept an eye on us the entire shoot. Although she had four legs and drank water from a small bowl, she was proving to be hard to impress.

After our art director left the shoot to chase her toy around for a while, we decided it was time to head out to the back patio of the apartment. I really enjoyed shooting out there mainly because of the simple concrete and metal shapes the fencing created along with the buildings in the background. I asked James to bring along his coffee so that he can keep warm and also bring an extra element to his portraits. While I photographed James, Dan held the Elinchrom 39″ deep octabank just out of frame to get some light on James’ face.

In the portrait above, the light is being held over my head and in front of James’ face.

We then headed out to the streets of Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn for some more environmental portraits. Although it was very cold out, I’m quite happy with the above photo. I love the movement in the portrait with James trying to close his coat along with the smile and expression in his eyes. It’s simple and strong at the same time.

We spent about an hour or so outdoors, walking around Williamsburg in the freezing cold. Eventually we came across a small coffee shop and immediately headed in to warm up. This final portrait was captured just before we left the shop. I was getting ready to leave but saw some great reflections in the window of the shop. I simply asked James to sit near the window and I’ll take care of the rest.