Intervals

I never intended on bringing aspects of my athletic life into my art until I began photographing my cross country and track team with a Diana F+ Holga camera. I originally began this practice as an experiment with the camera, but as I continued to shoot, I began to look deeper into the moments that we, runners, experience in our everyday life, amidst the running itself. Everyone knows the simplicities of the sport: we go to practice, we run, we race, etc. However, it’s so much more than that; it’s a lifestyle. My photographs then turned into documentation of the time, dedication, pain, and passion we put into this sport on a daily basis. These images display no emphasis on the act of running, as it is only a small portion of being a competitive runner. Throughout this series, attention is brought to all the other moments in training that are constantly repeated, such as stretching. This visual consistency and repetition is necessary because the sport of running is about consistency and repetition. Intervals focuses on what we do to keep our bodies healthy and fit -- ready for competition -- as we push our bodies beyond their thresholds.

The toy camera that this work is shot with makes it accessible for me to quickly capture the moments I want to show, minimizing distraction, and allowing me to also focus on my own training. The Diana F+ records life the way we see things in our memory more realistically than a digital camera does, considering the fact that a digital lens is far more perfect than the human eye. With the circular format and aesthetic created by the toy camera, I hope for the viewers to experience and be pulled into the intimate moments of the lifestyle we, student-athletes, live in order to excel in the sport of running.