When I first joined Flickr many years ago, I used to communicate with some photographer friends on a regular basis so that we we would come up with ideas as to what to go out and photograph theme-wise. The one challenge that kind of threw me was to get something boxing related. Though I like the sport quite a bit, I didn’t have any friends that boxed or that went to the gym. An old boss of mine used to teach at the Degerberg Martial Arts Academy but that was a looong time before this photo challenge.
I met a friend of mine for lunch in the West Loop and we were talking about my photography. She told me that she took a boxing workout course at a gym in Chicago. I took down the information and called the gym and spoke with the owner, Sammie. He was keen on the idea to have his gym featured. I finally had an opportunity to hook up with him on a time that worked for the both of us and arranged to take some photos of the place.
As we got to know each other, I worked with him on the gym’s web site. Sammie had his mind set on keeping the copy as was (my suggestions would be to edit and perhaps polish up a bit). So, when I worked on the site, it was the layout mainly and the addition of my photography. I also introduced some motion and eye catching elements to the site. It would have been really cool to have had the chance to do the full overhaul but that did not happen during my time there.
In the meantime, we worked on getting the photos down and I met some very cool people there. This would lead to other opportunities to get some boxing photography and other photo projects going. It was a great connection to have at the time. Here is a collage I put together from the first test shots.
Over the course of almost two years that I worked with the gym, my photo archive became massive. The photography was used for fliers and other visual projects. There is still a massive amount of work that is dormant on my external hard drives. As I recreate my online portfolios, they will come to light along with many other things from that time period. Sometimes you find inspiration by looking at the things you may have first rejected etc.
Stay tuned for more.
- Bernie
http://www.theshadowboxer.com
http://www.theshadowboxermedia.com
http://www.twitter.com/FastJabs
(this post imported from original blog)
Digital Dude Art I Created Many Years Ago
