Saturday, March 1, 2008

Bodybuilding as art

While I was shooting my new documentary, Beyond the Pain, I was lucky enough to get permission to sit in on a photo shoot with the exceptional photographer Martin Schoeller. Martin is known for his portraits of celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Bill Clinton, among many others.


This day Martin was working on his latest project, a series on women bodybuilders. An exhibition of the work is opening in March at the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA. A book will be published some time after that.

I like this clip because it does three things. It shows Martin's method of relaxing a subject during a photo shoot, tells us a little about the difficulties that Vicki has faced in her career and says something about bodybuilding in general.



5 comments:

Anglican Beach Party said...

That is amazing! Not only Martin's technique, but your ability to capture it so well. Again, amazing.

Yours truly,
Paul Erlandson
Anglican Beach Party

Mike Pulcinella said...

Thanks for your kind words! My objective when shooting for a documentary is the same as Martin's, to relax and distract the subject so that they reveal their inner self.

I like it when he says, "You see, I am doing something else and you are thinking I am not paying attention and you are becoming yourself!"

He just stated my shooting philosophy in a nutshell!

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for pointing me to your blog. I can't wait to share your video with my friends.

Ann

Mike Pulcinella said...

Thanks Ann. Same here. Your pictures really capture the flavor of that event and I'm going to send some people to your blog as well. We're bloggin' here!

PhotoJoe said...

Damn, I need an accent!