Inspiration

Strolls in Estonia /  by Bill Frakes

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A long, slow afternoon walk through this ancient Nordic capitol. It is midsummer here, but it feels like Florida in early winter.

Delicious, soft and chill.

Wonderful smells, heavenly coffee.

Watching, wandering, dreaming -- intermingled with concentration, consternation and construction.

A day of rest and reflection. And progress.

Just read a perfect script for our next short film. Crafted with lightning speed for me by a woman I have known her entire adult life, and who I adore for her brilliance, soul and constant struggle with conflict.

It's her story applied with subtle genius to a current event, linking what was, what became of things and where it's headed.

Her words run deep and pure, chilling and exhilarating. From the moment I found a path for the work, I knew she should write it, and that her feelings would provide the backbone.

She's a mother, a photographer, a traveller and a writer. English is her fourth or fifth language… and more are in line after that. I know three languages, but we really only overlap in my native tongue. I can only imagine how she sounds in hers. Someday, perhaps, I'll find a way to get there. It would be a dream.

Northern Europe. Another place I feel home.

This week, we are creating multiple pieces in Estonia covering the Song and Dance Celebration. Check in on Twitter (@billfrakes), Instagram (@billfrakes) and the blog for updates and sneak looks at the final projects.

Rainy Day Books /  by Bill Frakes

I've been in motion even more than usual the last four months, and since I average about 250,000 miles a year in the air and another 100,000 on the ground, that's saying something. I love books. The content. The way they feel. The relationship.

On planes, I read novels and biographies. It simultaneously invigorates and relaxes me.

In the office, it's all non fiction.

But when I can escape to the rocking chair, well, that's the best. A good coffee, a throw from Rejkavick, some blues wrapping around my ears and photo books. Even better if it's raining.

I have a good collection. At least 5,000 photo books.

Yesterday, I focused on three of them.

Mark Cohen's opus about his hometown.  He uses a technique to make the images that wouldn't work for many, but he makes it sing.

Alec Soth's Ping Pong conversations. Beautiful images, combined with an insightful, lovely book length interview with art critic Francesco Zanot. It is a book for photographic thinkers.

In Red Thistle, photographer Davide Montelone explores a small region of the Northern Caucus. It's a deep introspective work connecting narratives of the people and places he visits.

All three are blissful - sublime - and offer much pleasure.

Incredible style. Powerful subject matter.

I am working on a couple of my own that will hopefully be in a similar vein. Personal work more than commissions.

Heavenly. I do love the power of photography.

Best. Audience. Ever. /  by Bill Frakes

Best. Audience. Ever. One hundred third graders at United World College in Singapore.

Dave Caleb, a terrific friend, teacher and photographer invited Laura and me to talk with several groups of students at the school about creativity, my favorite topic. We always enjoy interacting with classes. We always learn more than we teach. But these kids were special.

The first video we showed was a highlight reel of my work for Sports Illustrated. I have shown this collection of images in various iterations at least 100 times through the years to audiences of all ages and interests. This group got it like no other. Oohs, and ahhs. Smiles, gasps, and giggles.

Normally in an hour-long presentation, we will show four or five video pieces, and a gallery of still images.  Normally, we take a dozen questions from the crowd. This time was different.

I turned the room open to questions.  Eighty hands shot up.

The first question stopped me cold.

Eliot.  A precocious 8-year-old with a winning smile underneath mischievous eyes asked me a simple question that cuts to the core of everything we do as photojournalists.

"Your photographs are impossibly good. Do you build them in Photoshop?"

In an instant it came clear to me how pervasive the credibility issue has become for my profession.

Photoshop is a tool.  It’s a great one.  It’s wonderful for all kinds of images.  It just can’t be used by photojournalists to alter the content of a picture.

Now more than ever the world needs accurate, fair, powerful photographic storytelling.  The challenge for us is to establish veracity with our work.

Once I explained that credibility is the most important part of a photojournalist’s work they really got excited, and the questions moved to feelings, life and the world at-large.

The kids were totally engaged and intrigued.  They wanted to understand everything.

I could have stayed there all day.

Throwback Thursday: The Kentucky Derby /  by Bill Frakes

Come Saturday I'll be on the track at Churchill Downs. Head on to the finish line, cradling a 800 f5.6 on a Nikon D4s.  Exactly like my first Derby in 1981 except then it was a 400 f3.5 on an Nikon F2.

I have to pinch myself to be sure I am awake. Being at the Derby, or the finish line at the Olympics, on the sideline at The Super Bowl, covering the President, covering a war, or walking in ancient cities... these are my life now, but I never take it for granted.  Thinking about Mom, my childhood and home, keeps my feet on the floor.

When they play "My Old Kentucky Home" and the horses come on to the track my heart pounds with excitement. It's showtime, and the old stadium plays host to the greatest two minutes in sports.

The Derby is my favorite annual event.  It's part sports, part culture.  The crux of my exploration of athletic competition is the intersection of motion and emotion, the sometimes chance, but more often calculated inclusion of art, commerce and athleticism into sport which so heavily influences the functioning of society through participation and observation.  And no place better than Churchill Downs during the annual running of the Kentucky Derby.

Dan Dry, one of the finest newspaper photographers ever, invited me to my first Derby more than 30 years ago.  It was a defining moment in my career.

We had a great time that year, 1981.  Gary Bogdon was with us then.  I'll see Dan and Larry shortly, it’s a yearly pilgrimage that we are all dedicated to making -- it just gets in your blood and you don't want to shake it.  It's too glorious.

Dan was on staff at The Courier Journal.  They were an incredible group. Luster.  Dry.  Farlow.  Mather.  Harris.  Montgomery. Spaulding.  Van Hook. Tom Hardin ran the place.  Their Sunday paper after the Derby was a tour de force of visual storytelling.

I made images I love to this day.  I used a remote camera for the first time ever -- boy did that start a dangerous addiction to gear!

Times change, technology evolves.  There have been years when I've used more than 60 cameras to cover the action. This year I will use about 20.

SI legends Heinz Kluetmeier, Johnny Iaacono and Jerry Cooke were there, too, in force.  The best sports photographers working at the time, I couldn't believe how sophisticated their coverage was, or just how cool they were.  I had zero idea I'd be their colleague a few short years later.

The next time I went to the Derby it was on assignment for SI.  Courtesy of Heinz.

For the next 29 years, I've known exactly where I would spend the first weekend in May.  Always with Kluet or working for him during one of his two stints as SI's Director of Photography.

Heinz is the best teacher.  He pushes me to think.  To innovate and create. To outwork everyone else.  And I always hope to bring his intensity and style.

I'm missing him here.  I expect my phone to ring a few dozen times in the next days reminding of what I need to do.

I'll do what I can so when I hear from him next week he'll be quietly smiling.

For more on the Derby, visit these videos and articles:

An American Tradition /  by Bill Frakes

Football. The South. An American tradition. I grew up in Nebraska where football was king.

In undergraduate school at Arizona State, we had a big, powerful program -- during my time there, we were always among the nation's best.

But then I moved to the South, and I found the mother lode.

Before Friday Night Lights was a thing. Before the SEC ruled the land with seven straight BCS Championship wins. Before 39 cable channels were devoted to the sport.

Before all of that. Every small Southern town, seemingly every conversation not specifically related to religion or food, and every childhood and young adult sports fantasy, all revolved around a powerful high school football tradition.

It's then, it's now, and it always will be much more than a game. It's pride in community and hard work. It's the culture.

Working for Sports Illustrated as a staff photographer, I've spent a lot of time on the sidelines of football games of every stripe. SI through the years has covered the game better than anyone. I'm not sure that any of the images shot close to the action in stadiums big and small said as much about how I think of a life around football than this image, made with a Nikon P7800, when I dropped my 12-year-old daughter off at her school yesterday morning.