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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2008-09-15
View from the Bird’s Nest
Images by Rick Rickman and Mariah Tauger from the Bejing Olympics are featured in gallery show.
By Joe Gosen, SportsShooter.com
Photo by Rick Rickman / NewSport
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In 2006, while enrolled in her first visual journalism course at Brooks Institute with instructor Rick Rickman, Mariah Tauger made a phone call to her family in Boulder, Colorado. Fighting back tears, she told them she didn’t think she had what it took to be a photographer.
However, the young sports fanatic survived that moment of self-doubt and two years later found herself traveling abroad for the first time in her life to photograph the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with Rickman, who notably garnered a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. This week the two SportsShooter.com members will host a gallery exhibit of their photographs from the Games.
Rickman, a freelance photographer and faculty member at Brooks, coordinated with NewSport Photo Agency this year to obtain a credential for a student to travel with him to China and be one of the five primary shooters for the agency. NewSport director Les Walker selected Tauger over several applicants, stating that her portfolio shows she has a wonderful sense of timing and that she understands quality of light and knows how to capture moments.
Tauger said, "The Olympics was a culmination of everything I had learned photographically from Brooks but personally the Olympics was such a great life experience for me. It kicked my ass all the way. It was the hardest thing I’ve done and has been the biggest reward."
"I have taught Mariah in several classes and it has been wonderful to see her bloom," Rickman said. "She got a taste of how tough it can be to shoot the Olympics. She had to put up with the norms of the day, like the oppressive heat and the long days. We would start each day 5 a.m., strap on 75lbs of gear and go cover two or three events. We’d finish up around 11 p.m. and then head to the press center and edit for another three hours. So basically you get about two to three hours of sleep each day and this goes on for 19 days."
At the age of 57 and having photographed 13 Olympics games, Rickman said this was the first time he felt the physical toll of working the event. When it was all over, he decided it would be the last summer games he would photograph. Having said that, he added, "The Beijing Olympic Games were so good this year. It made me feel pumped up again. It was the same feeling I had after the L.A. Olympics."
Rickman said the Beijing Olympics were the best Olympics he has been to. "It was the most interesting, the most organized and had the most esthetically pleasing venues. It made doing the job so much easier."
Tauger, a third-year student in the visual journalism program, said she is still trying to summarize her extraordinary experience.
"On some levels it was totally surreal. It was crazy. It was phenomenal. It was amazing. But more than anything it was eye opening. I’ve never seen a place so vast with so many buildings and so many people. I’m very grateful to have had this experience," Tauger said. "I fell in love with the people."
Photo by Mariah Tauger / NewSport
In a country steeped with tradition, with an honor reserved for few, a soldier stands guard over one of the world’s oldest and most awe inspiring creations.
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Rickman added, “The work ethic and pride of the people made the whole experience wonderful. They were proud that the world was coming to their country. We made many strong connections with the volunteers and bonded like family.”
Tauger said that shooting shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of photographers was intimidating at first and she found herself questioning whether she belonged in the pack, but soon she was rubbing elbows with photographers whose pictures she had admired and studied in school.
"David Burnett [Contact Press Images] was on the bus between venues and he chatted about all his ideas and was the coolest, most down to earth person. Heinz Kluetmeier [Sports Illustrated] was great, too. He was so quick to give advice and was open about helping other photographers. And Bob Deutsch [USA TODAY] was not only supportive and a constant source of entertainment, but he became someone I consider a friend. It was just a great sense of community."
The photographers received additional support from Nikon, who supplemented them with camera equipment. Nikon provided Tauger with two D3 bodies, a 600mm f/4, 400mm f/2.8, 200mm f/2, 24-70mm, and 14-24mm. In addition, she brought a third D3 from the Brooks equipment department and several pelican cases to pack everything.
“I don’t think Mariah would have had as good of a take without the equipment that Nikon loaned her,” Rickman said. “The D3 is the best camera I ever used – bar none. There isn’t a better camera on the market right now. About 70 percent of what I shot was rated at ISO 2500 or higher and when you see the prints you’d be hard pressed to think these weren’t shot at ISO 400 or less.”
Rickman and Tauger’s photographs can be seen at a gallery exhibition opening this week at the Brooks Institute “Visions Gallery”, which is located at the Ventura Beach Marriott in Ventura, Calif. An artists’ reception opens the exhibit Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public. The exhibit features more than 60 photographs and will be on display until October 25, 2008.
Brooks gallery coordinator Jesse Groves began working on the print exhibition while Rickman and Tauger were still in China. A couple times a week the photographers uploaded pictures to him so Groves could start editing the gallery show.
Groves worked with Brooks VJ instructor, Anacleto Rapping and VJ student Afton Almaraz, who are both SportsShooter.com members, to edit it all down to the final selection. “I brought in Anacleto to get his professional perspective on the games and he, along with Afton, helped me edit the show down to about 100 photos. Afton then continued to work with me on the final selection and the layout of the show,” Groves said. With funding from Brooks, Groves and Almaraz printed, matted and framed the photographs for this exhibit and Nikon provided additional promotional support.
Rick Rickman, Mariah Tauger (middle) and Olympic volunteer "Rainy" at the Great Wall in China.
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Groves' inspiration for the show’s title View from the Bird’s Nest came from the Olympic National Stadium and how the "view" in this show is not just about what the photographers captured within the stadium but how they captured China’s response to the Olympics and the excitement surrounding it as well.
His priority in editing, said Groves, was choosing excellent photographs that showcase the two photographers’ distinctive perspectives while presenting an exhibit that captures the historical event.
Gallery Exhibition:
View from the Bird’s Nest
Photographs from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by Brooks Institute Visual Journalism Faculty member Rick Rickman and VJ student Mariah Tauger.
Exhibit:
Sept. 18 – Oct. 25, 2008
Artist's Reception:
September 18, 2008, 5 p.m to 7:30 p.m.
Location:
Visions Gallery – Ventura Beach Marriott
2055 E. Harbor Blvd.
Ventura, CA 93001
(805) 643-6000
(Joe Gosen is a visual journalism instructor at Brooks Institute and a co-founder of SportsShooter.com. You can see his member page here: http://www.sportsshooter.com/joe.)
Related Links:
Mariah Tauger's member page
Rick Rickman's member page
Anacleto Rapping's member page
Afton Almaraz's member page
Brooks Institute
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Contents copyright 2008, SportsShooter.com. Do not republish without permission.
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