Remembering Moments at Fina Worlds in Gwangju 2019

I remember capturing this moment so vividly. 
It’s one of those pictures you take and you can’t help but smile as it’s happening. Smiling because you feel so happy for these athletes and what you’ve just witnessed. And smiling that you get to be a part of capturing it. And even though I was squished between a group of sweaty photographers, all turned in slightly different directions, hearing a crazy amounts of shutters going off at once, and shouts from photographers yelling at other photographers to get down–at the same time, all I could really feel was the pure energy of these two in these photos. And when you feel a photo as you’re taking it–it’s almost like the outside world quiets down to a calm hum for a second.

Truth be told, don’t photograph a lot of meets. Most of my work consists of dedicated photo shoot time, that have more conversation and a free flowing nature to them. We get time to experiment, play around, mess up and try again. Which is incredible, but what I love about shooting meets is being on deck, documenting history, seeing these athletes, these races, these friendships, these rivalries, wins, losses–this whole world. The action and reaction. Just being able to see real heart like this. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s it. And that? That’s some real shit right there. I think in the end, this is just a sign that I need to photograph more competitions…