The question I get asked plenty is...
Why do I aspire to do sports, gym and action photography?
Beyond the typical answer of admiration, to get to the core of my why is to understand my personal mental health struggles. My adolescent years were steeped in the battle with the mind, an unfortunate curse of being considered different. I’ve no photos of the triumphs I did have.
So I must emphasise why I love this. I want to be the memory keeper, to capture that one moment of exhilaration—training or otherwise, because you are young only once. We only live this one life. And I know better than anyone a soul can be so easily incapacitated. It is a blessing to take care of the body and, by extension, the mind. No matter how little it is.
I aspire to do this sort of photography because of the community I’ve found, above all. They saved me again and again and taught me courage. To be frank and candid, I used to self-harm extensively. I have scars that I carry as a result. I did it for a bit over a decade. I will be clean for many years as of 1st of April 2025. More importantly, it will have been five years.
Do you know what I did five years ago that aided my withdrawals? To turn a day of no self-harm into a month, to a year, to soon a half a decade? I joined a gym. On my first day, my arm was bound in bandages. I was scared. These people were fit and so boldly amazing. They became people that I admire and love.
The community saved me. I am taught many beautiful things by each person, so boldly brave in just being.
To sum up, why I do this form of photography, beyond the love for adrenaline, is to give back to the communities that liberated me from the worst of my mind’s bullying against me.
It taught me that I can and am be something.
So are you, and I’m excited to capture you in those moments of exhaustion and delight.
You are brave in this one life.
Keep going, with all the little things and reach for the stars.
