All photos © Rob Tringali

Rob Tringali is a freelance photographer who has specialized in sports for over 20 years. He photographed the last 22 Super Bowls, 14 World Series and numerous Olympic games as well as major golf and tennis championships, and World Cup soccer. Tringali’s clients often hire him to not only get the winning shot, but also capture the spirit of the moment through a unique perspective.

Tringali says, “I love shooting sports for a variety of reasons: I appreciate the competition and what an athlete or team has to endure to become the best, how they push themselves to limits most people couldn’t grasp. Capturing the essence of sport from such a close proximity never gets old. I’ve escaped near misses on NFL sidelines, have had hockey pucks and baseballs whiz by my head at ridiculous speeds, climbed with bulky, heavy lenses up snowy mountains—all experiences I would never trade.”

Above: Cameron Maybin #24 of the San Diego Padres poses during their photo day at the Padres Spring Training Complex on February 23, 2011 in Peoria, Arizona.

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All photos © Eyeconic Images.

Spearfishing is a type of hunting done with underwater guns, harpoons and strong line. Freediving is a type of breath-hold diving in which divers descend for the duration of one breath, without SCUBA tanks or any breathing apparatus. The best freedivers can hold their breath for over five minutes and go deeper than 100 feet. The combination of both these skills makes a high adrenaline sport done by only a few brave souls. All of the images made were also on breath-hold dives – no SCUBA.

Eyeconic Images is the partnership of DJ Struntz and Logan Mock-Bunting, two photographers with a passion for story-telling, image-making and the ocean. Their photographs have appeared in National Geographic, Outside Magazine, Time Magazine, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine, Surfing, Smithsonian Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Mclean’s, and Men’s Health. (more…)

All photos © Jake Price

The six-month anniversary of the March 11 tsunami that struck northeastern Japan came and went with little attention in the Western press. But New York-based photographer Jake Price, who has spent a total of ten weeks in Tōhoku since March, believes the environmental devastation the disaster wrought will be a story for a long time to come. While the media has focused on nuclear contamination, he says, “Walking past overturned boats, cars, trucks, I realized that their oil, gas and other chemicals emptied into the soil and groundwater.” He photographed mounds made from the bulldozed debris of entire towns, which contain insulation, fiberglas and chemical contaminants.

The salt water and oil that washed into farms has made the land unusable for five years or more. ”Many elderly farmers will never see growth on their land again. Still they work diligently to hand it off to future generations, an issue that is filled with uncertainty because so many young people have left for the big cities.”

Price shot many still images, video and audio in the region, and the BBC showed some of his images in an audio slide show.

Of the limited press attention paid to the crisis, Price notes, “I think the perception … is that the Japanese have everything figured out because it is such an orderly society.  But that is simplistic at best.  People are still coping with enormous stress and loneliness after losing everything.”

Though assignments to cover the story are rare, Price is planning to return to the region soon. “The more I get to know about Tōhoku the more interested I become.” He wants to donate his images to libraries and community centers to help the region begin restoring the visual record lost in the tsunami.

© Lyndon Johnson

“I found this wonderful jumping spider in the brush looking at me as if he wanted to have a conversation.” Lyndon Johnson’s arachnid portrait was included as part of The Great Outdoors 2011 online gallery.

All photos © Elijah Gowin/courtesy Robert Mann Gallery. Above: “Into the Sun 12,” 2009

Elijah Gowin has transgressed one of the most basic rules of photography in his latest series, “Into the Sun.” Shooting into the sun is a way of courting blindness, but it’s also a daring way to confront the source of the force and power of the center of our solar system. His exhibit “Into the Sun” is on display through October 22 at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City.

Gowin, who received a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, is currently associate professor in the department of art and art history at University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Critic Lyle Rexer has written, “Elijah Gowin is the prophet of this longing, the diviner of such dreams. His work confronts the impenetrability of the world and the challenge of representing it.”

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