028 — Exploring New Routes
Insights into a photography project with trail runner and athlete coach Adrian Niski
I’m a photographer who focuses on authentic advertising, lifestyle, and portraiture. This newsletter is my outlet to let go and share thoughts, photographs, experiences and behind the scenes. If you are curious and have not subscribed yet, you can do now. It means the world to me! :)
Today’s newsletter is about a personal project from earlier this year, when I had the idea to combine multiple interests of mine into one photographic story.
01 HOUSEKEEPING
Before we dive into the story, I’ll quickly give you an update.
At the beginning of August, I had the incredible honor to work on a story for the ski brand ATOMIC. It is already online, and I’m super happy how it turned out. In a further newsletter I’ll get into the details and how much this means to me, but for now I’ll leave you with a link to the project on my website.
Since the start of 2024 I worked on multiple portraits for the U26 Tirol campaign by Vehrkehrsverbund Tirol. I’ll also give you some insight in my 2024 Retrospective about these assignments.
Printed Magazine: My I would say main goal for this year is to create a magazine with my best work. One requirement to complete this was to work on several personal projects during the year. At the moment, I’m selecting images and gather inspiration for the art direction of the magazine. I’ve not planned to sell the magazine since it should be mainly for clients and agencies, but let me know if you would be interested!
02 THE STORY BEHIND THE PROJECT "NEW ROUTES"
The first aim was to collaborate with a brand in the running space. The brand should ideally not be too big, offer high quality products, speak a similar visual language and target both professional and more importantly authentic/unique athletes.
Before going any further, and to better understand what follows, I would like to briefly describe my current relationship with sports. Before moving to Tyrol, I played soccer for almost my whole life - this means, that sport was usually very competitive, and I rarely did any sport “just for fun”. Don't understand me wrong, playing soccer was fun, but it was always about winning games as a team, getting better as an individual and giving your absolute best to play on the weekends.
I rarely did any sport “just for fun”.
When moving to Tyrol, I consciously made the decision to put this part of me on hold to pursuit and discover other sports. Besides usual running, I discovered trail running, started road cycling and combined those disciplines with regular functional weight training, hiking and yoga to relax and get more flexible (again).
The general idea that sparked the project was to tell a story about exploring new routes in the beautiful Tyrolean mountains. Forgetting the competitive side of the trail running sport, but focus on pure joy and the ease of accessibility for most people. Each time I run, I'm more convinced that the wholeness of life is just outside the door. This feeling of freedom and joy of movement should be the key elements of the project.
After having a brand to partner with on this project, I only needed to make sure to have an athlete as the main talent of the shoot who embodies these feelings and is very authentic in general. Adrian and I didn't know each other well, but we have met once before I reached out to him if he is up to bring the idea to life. He immediately said yes, and so everything was set.
Having ALBAOPTICS, an Italian sports eyewear brand as the supportive partner of this project felt just right, and I’m so grateful for the trust!
Arian was the perfect fit for the story I wanted to tell!
The process from the initial idea to the final results took a lot of time and energy, but that is what these well-thought-out projects require, becoming the version they need to be.
I’m happy you are here, and I can share this with you!
Behind the scenes from the shooting day :)
The best place to see my work is my website. Other places to find me are Instagram and LinkedIn.
Written Thoughts is a newsletter dedicated to creativity and discovering oneself as a photographer and as a person. I'll be sharing experiences, projects, work updates, behind the scenes, my workflow and inspiration. You'll also get small photo bites in a new format called More Photos.
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THANK YOU!
Nice project !