Why Create an image?
As a photographer who gravitates towards athletes I often get asked why do I choose to composite and create images rather than capturing the moment, particularly with sports imagery. Rob Haggart interviewed me recently for an article in outside about retouched imagery in editorial publications. For me it is not about trying to create something that did not happen or fool my audience but rather creating the image that I see using the tools I have. When film was in existence I gravitated towards large format cameras, my favorite was the graflex super D’s. They allowed me to track focus and shoot the action, at the same time being able to have this huge 4×5 negative that I could crop into to give me the long horizontal images I see. As digital became more available and then the only real medium I had to find a way to create that same look using the 35mm format. What I found was that if I shot numerous plates for the background, stitched those together in photoshop, and then shot the main action full frame using a 50mm with a shallow depth of field it could just about replicate the look I was getting using the super D with a 210mm. In so many ways this is liberating because when shooting 4×5 or 8×10 I would have to have the talent within my composition, with a runner that would mean setting up the shot and having them run past the same spot as I focused and clicked the shutter. This way of shooting was a law of averages, the more you shot the better your chances of getting an image that was in focus, with a great pose, and a perfect composition. Creating images the way I do now allows me more opportunities to explore and really capture the moment, then with the background plates create the image I previsualized.
