Image via Complex Original
These athletes are masters of their art forms, and by that, we don't just mean the sports they play. From surfers to ski-jumpers, these talented folks are also professional photographers with a passion for exploration. Some shoot for fun, while others do commercial photography. Some do it to document their adventures, and others intend to create a narrative, which they imbue with perspective gained from their experiences, allowing the image to expand beyond the two-dimensional frame.
Many of these athlete/photographers have also been published in magazines or have had solo exhibitions. For some of them, their careers in sports introduced them to fellow pro athletes who became the subjects of their photographs. Aside from breaking records and conquering Mount Everest (many times), some of these athletes have also scaled new heights and started their own photography or production companies.
Get to know these 13 Athletes Who Are Also Photographers.
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Erik Boomer
Erik Boomer is a professional photographer, kayaker, and a National Geographic "Adventurer of the Year." In 2011, he and fellow paddler Jon Turk embarked on a clockwise circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island in Canada for 104 days. The two men were the first people to complete a circumnavigation of the island, earning them both the title of "Adventurer of the Year." Boomer documented his 104-day adventure with photographs, which were featured in the New York Times and Outside Magazine. Before taking on Ellesmere Island, Boomer embarked on other expeditions and adventures, which include six descents of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine and dropping 90-foot waterfalls.
Tyson Chandler
The Knicks center debuted his first photography exhibition two years ago. Titled "A Year in a New York Minute," the exhibition contained photographs he'd taken in New York, London, and Tanzania over the past year. The photographer continues to make an impact off-court, auctioning some of his work to benefit UNICEF. Even though Chandler has been "into art," he found "this different element of photography inspiring to do." Photography enables him to capture a moment, the image of which "tells the story in itself."
Gregor Schlierenzauer
Dubbed "The Flying Austrian," Schlierenzauer was a participant in the recent Sochi 2014 Olympics, where he won a silver medal. The 24-year-old Austrian ski-jumper has been ski-jumping since he was nine. Around 2008, he set the single season World Cup record with 13 wins and matched the unbroken record of six consecutive wins. When he's not claiming victories and medals, the young athlete adds photography to his expanding roster of accomplishments. He maintains a photo blog on his website and is an avid Instagram user.
Joe Curren
The California-based photographer and surfer is also a writer, a second-generation shaper and woodworker, a Patagonia brand ambassador, and an art framer. Curren tried to follow in the footsteps of his pro-surfer brother and started surfing for a living.
While surfing, Joe would also travel to exotic places to document what he sees. He started with a disposable point-and-shoot camera and after a trip to New Zealand in 1999, he decided to invest in a basic 35-mm SLR, which he would pack alongside his surfing equipment. Over the years, he has spent hours talking to, photographing, and archiving stories of his peers, many who are surfing veterans. As a surfer, Joe also treats history as a matter of great importance. He says, "what's past is prologue," and it is his heritage that has afforded him much of the access he has gained into the surfing and photography world.
Ryan Cardone
Ryan Cardone is a professional longboarder and commercial photographer. He graduated from the Brooks Institute of Photography and says that his goal is to capture "the intense influence the ocean [has] had in [his] life." He perceives every photograph as a work of art and wishes to instill in his clients the same emotions that a photograph can express.
Cardone's goals and his love for the ocean inspired him to start Tidal Advertising and Tidalstock.com, a stock photography company which he is a currently co-owner of.
Jimmy Chin
One of the most sought-after expedition photographers today, Chin is also a professional climber, skier, and 10-year veteran of the North Face Athlete Team. Dovetailing his flair for photography and his passion for exploration, his athletic prowess has taken him on breakthrough expeditions around the world. He has worked with some of the top adventurers, climbers, and skiers in the world.
Chin is known for shouldering the camera equipment and documenting the grand odysseys of the industry's best athletes, regardless of what it takes—even if it means risking his life at times. While filming for National Geographic, Chin has trekked unsupported across 300 miles of Tibet's 17,000-foot-high Chang Tang Plateau, most of which was unexplored. He has also captured first ascents of the world's tallest freestanding sandstone towers located in Mali. Whereas most of us dare not even consider making it up Mount Everest once, Chin has scaled Everest a number of times. In 2006, he skied from the summit of Everest while shooting Kit DesLaurier's historic ski descent of the mountain.
Andrew Wilz
Andrew Wilz, a retired World Cup Snowboard veteran athlete, was on the World Cup circuit for 13 years as a Super-G specialist on the PTSA. Like Sven Martin, he turned to photography, since it seemed logical at the time. When he's taking photos, Wilz says he "point[s] the camera where [he's] asked." He shoots commercial running as well as mountain biking, skiing, and some surfing, too. While he says he "lives for working with amazing clients," his dream job consists of shooting F1.
Besides having had his work published in the Red Bull Illume 2010 Photobook, Wilz has worked with Outside Magazine, ESPN, New Balance, and Patagonia. Wilz also founded the content-production group WilzFoto, which aims to meet the sports industry's escalating demand for high-definition, "cinematic quality" videographers and photographers.
Sven Martin
Mountain biking's "most-liked photographer" got his start as a professional skateboarder before finding his way into the mountain biking community. The New Zealand-based photographer moved from Cape Town to Southern California in 1998 to pursue skateboarding but ended up doing photography "by default" due to visa limitations. Martin began shooting fellow skaters when he was injured from skateboarding, and since then it "became a little bit of a job," which evolved into mountain biking.
In 2007, he shot but did not compete in the first World Cup. He competed once or twice more in 2008 before he got "tired of being broke at the end of each season." He quit competitive sports altogether, choosing to commit to photography full-time.
Thomas Ulrich
While Thomas Ulrich was receiving training to become a professional carpenter and mountain guide, he was also doing some extreme climbing. He traveled to Patagonia for the first time in 1988, and he would eventually embark on six more expeditions there. He accomplished many important climbs during those trips and completed the first successful traverse of the Southern Patagonian inland ice.
In 1999, he went with friends on the first winter ascent of the "Ferrari" route on Cerro Torre. He embarked on a new career becoming an adventure photographer, and his photographs have been published in Animan, LIFE, and Sports Illustrated. He is also a cameraman and filmmaker and has won several prizes for his movies.
Philipp Schuster
The acclaimed skater claims to be "completely addicted to photography," and it doesn't stop there. In 2008, Schuster combined his passions for skating and photography to create Trottoir, an independent web magazine for skaters. In 2012, Schuster's stepped into other creative domains, teaming up with Red Bull DIY Supply to renovate a hunting lodge into a popular skate spot in Salzburg.
Jonathan Lucas
Lucas took interest in action photography back when he was skateboarding in London's South Bank, snapping photos with his friend's Pentax K1000. Even though he never planned on being a photographer, the skateboarder has been recognized for his spectacular action photography.
His work has gotten him opportunities to team up with talented sportsmen like skater William Spencer and football freestyler John Farnwoth, athletes whose mastery of their craft contributes significantly to the impact of a photograph. Their abilities, willingness, and open-mindedness, combined with their hard work, makes the job easy for Lucas, who is then left with the task of conveying his plan and putting it into action. Interested in portraying more than an athlete's movement, he takes location, journey, and other contextual information into account to depict a narrative that expands beyond the frame of the captured image.
Georg Popp
Popp had to "finish his 'first life'" as a professional basketball player before deciding to go into photography. During the time in between, he saved money, traveled, and had "lots of adventures." He describes himself describes himself as a "landscape photographer in a classical sense" who uses large-format (4x5) camera systems, and does not feel old-fashioned for doing so. He perceives himself "more as an artist, like a painter, with the creative freedom that comes with this concept," and is confident that he could be as adept as "pure digital" photographers if placed in a digital darkroom.
Arto Saari
Saari is a professional skateboarding legend and now big-time skate photographer. On his first skateboarding trip, he was hired to photograph other skaters doing challenging tricks rather than performing them himself. Now, at 30 years old, he's a reputable skateboarding photographer who captures the stunts of the next generation of skating proteges.
Saari's first solo photography show was held last spring in the Villain event space in Williamsburg. The show was a silent auction intending to benefit New York's skateparks and community outreach through art. Fellow pros like Fred Gall, Richard Angelides, and Stefan Janoski were among the skaters in the crowd.
When asked if he has any advice for someone inspired to take up professional photography, he cautions: "photography is such a weird thing and it's not the easiest way to support yourself." He warns that "you have to have a lot of passion. You'll blow it a lot, but you need to keep shooting and really edit down your photos."