sports

balance {一} • wang shifu • shaolin temple kung fu

beach, martial arts, outdoors, sports

This is my third installment of my project with Shifu Wang Bo of Shaolin Temple Kung Fu. We had such a rich morning of shooting: the location was inspiring for us both, & I used it to structure our session. I showed Wang Shifu three areas that I wanted to use, & I asked him to choose which weapons he wanted for each one. For the enclosed space of the cave, he chose the shorter weapons, & out in this open space on the very precipice of the cliff above the ocean, he chose to use the longest—the staff. I had been shooting at close range, but for these shots, I wanted to go wider, which involved me climbing down & away from him. From even quite a distance, Wang Shifu’s dynamic presence & expressions in face, body, & movement were as arresting as from close up. And he was at once part of his surroundings, & yet also like a dancer upon a stage—no matter the gorgeous set, your eye is drawn to him…

work out • figure studies • crossfit hax

sports

For those of you who might not know it, my husband Max runs CrossFit HAX in Harbor City, CA. He has been a diehard advocate of the CrossFit methodology since trying it out more than four years ago. He has always been into fitness & nutrition (having grown up with a dance teacher for a mom), but bringing the CrossFit lifestyle to others has been incredibly rewarding for him. I’ve been photographing people at his gym during their regular workouts and fundraisers for the last three years. Recently, he moved to a larger space, & it has been so much fun shooting pics of all his loyal old clients, & also all the new faces (& bodies) who have recently joined up. I love, love photographing bodies moving–dancers, martial artists, athletes–so for this project, I wanted to show off the hard work of all these people who carve out the time & make the effort to get & stay in shape. They come in all shapes, sizes, & backgrounds, but they share something in common: They show up. They don’t make excuses. They push their bodies & minds to the limit—at 5:00 AM or after a full day’s work, & on Saturdays. You can see how glorious the human body can be when it is molded by activity & nourished with good food. True—not everyone will do what they do (or reap the rewards) because they call it “WORKing out” for a reason: it’s work. And only the disciplined will do it.