VISUAL STORYTELLING
IBARIONEX PERELLO
Last year, a friend and co-worker of mine at the studio, Dana, shared how nervous he was about an
upcoming competition at his CrossFit gym. Each year, there’s a national CrossFit Open where members
of each local gym perform a series of specific exercises over five weeks. He not only needed to complete
the total number of repetitions for each exercise, but each rep had to be done with good form to be
counted. Though he had been a dutiful member of the gym for years, he knew this would challenge him.RENDERING CROSSFIT IN B&W
I had always had an interest in photographing CrossFit,
and recognized this as the perfect opportunity to do just
that. Dana welcomed the idea and I received approval to
photograph at the gym. I arrived to find men and women
of all ages and shapes preparing to participate in the
night’s event; however, my focus was entirely on Dana.
As he moved through each exercise, I focused not only
on his execution but also on his interaction with others.
This included the person responsible for keeping track of
his form and repetitions, as well as serving as a sourceof encouragement throughout Dana’s attempt. I knew
that was something I wanted to capture in a photograph.
That moment presented itself at the end of his last
rep of his last exercise. Dana collapsed to the floor
exhausted, struggling to catch his breath. Sweat beaded
off his scalp as he was congratulated for his success.
It was a strong emotional moment that I knew should
be rendered in black and white. (KelbyOne members
can click here to download a version of this image to
follow along.)