Chest heaving, lungs burning, limbs aching, sweat dripping, the taste of iron. A strange addiction to testing what the human body is capable of. Ever since I was a little kid, I remember looking at photographs of athletes and watching sports films or competitions and feeling a thrill as I imagined myself inside the pictured environment, wondering what the athlete was feeling in the moment. That rush of adrenaline, the stress hormone that prepares muscles for exertion, igniting feelings of nervous pure excitement.

Most athletes will agree that their sport is more than just a sport, more than a team, more than winning or losing. Sports and athletics knock you down, walk on you a bit, push you to the breaking points and often beyond, but the reward they can give, the thrill, the adrenaline…the payoff can be so overwhelmingly worth it that all the literal pain, sweat, blood, and tears just fade away. Your teammates become your family, who you laugh in victory with AND suffer in defeat with. They often see you in your best and worst moments when your weaknesses or your strengths are revealed.

But what happens when there are no teammates, no head coach, and no one watching? Enter the world of unconventional sports and athletics. A culture where freedom of style and independence reign, and passion-driven, self-motivated, resilient individuals challenge the traditional ideas of sports. A culture where teammates are often fellow competitors, all who are so passionate about evolving their sport that they create a community amongst themselves.

At the core of why I am drawn to this subject matter lies the question, what truly makes an athlete? What drives an individual to balance on a piece of wood with wheels, try to flip it over, smash it into their shin 46 times, and keep doing it until those wheels finally make contact with the ground? Passion? Addiction? Madness? 

Chasing Adrenaline is a project that focuses on revealing the passion, authenticity, and freedom of athletic individuals through the use of hard light, rich warmth, and dynamic environments. Clean and graphic compositions emphasize the lack of onlookers, instead focusing on portraying the beauty of athletic abilities that exude passion, and the unregulated, unrestrained, PURE PHYSICAL EXPRESSION that comes with unconventional sports.

My desire for this work is to empower the athletes I collaborate with, to share athletics that don’t fit into a mold with those who may have not seen them before, to convey a feeling of freedom and a taste of adrenaline, and to challenge viewers to ask themselves, what drives an athlete?