Part of the reason I love photography so much is due to the ability it gives me to connect with people, hear their stories and understand some of their key life experiences. This is what has really driven me since 2017, when I first started capturing weddings.
Today, that drive is still there, but I really wanted to combine it with another major passion of mine – Sport. At an early age, I played soccer in a kids rec league our of Salem, Ontario and I was absolutely terrible. Growing up I was never very coordinated and I found that sports never came naturally to me, thus I always shied away from sports. It wasn’t until grade 9 where I saw there was a football team at the school and tried out. In the first week, I was incredibly intimidated by everyone there and what I would have to do to play, that I stopped going after day 3. The next year, I decided to commit to the team and ended up making the team, and from there, I gradually built up confidence to compete with the other people on the team and start to believe I could play the sport at a high level. This eventually led me to being recruited to play at McMaster where we won 2 Provincial Championships (2011 and 2012) and won the National Championship (2011).
While I finished my football career after the 2013 campaign, I find it interesting that football is still such a huge part of my life, and a way that I describe myself to those I meet. I think that this is due to the significant impact the sport and those in it had on my development from the age of 15 to 23.
Now the point of me sharing this story and of this project is that I want to capture peoples’ journey through sport over the years. My goal is to follow people over the course of time to gain a perspective of how their time in sport helps them develop as both athletes, but also – an more importantly – as people. This project is meant to connect with anyone from young amateurs, to the masters rowers. From someone who started sports at the age of 5 or at 55.
This project is truly a passion project for me, so I do not have an end story, goal time or amount of photographs that I want to capture. This is simply a creative outlet for me and I am going to let the story create itself, while I simply conect and take photos.
If you are interested in participating in my project, here is what you can expect:
- Portrait taken
- 30-60 min interview to hear your story (In-person or virtual)
- Recurring on any basis that interests you.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Follow along on my instagram page.
