ESPN
THE BODY ISSUE
Featuring Alex Honnold
client
ESPN
The Brief
The Body Issue was an annual feature in ESPN The Magazine that showcased nude or semi-nude photographs of athletes from various sports.
It aimed to celebrate the diversity of athletic bodies and explore how athletes train and prepare their bodies and was intended to be ESPN's answer to Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue.
For the final issue, Alex Honnold was to be featured coming off the back of his Oscar Award Winning documentary Free Solo.
It aimed to celebrate the diversity of athletic bodies and explore how athletes train and prepare their bodies and was intended to be ESPN's answer to Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue.
For the final issue, Alex Honnold was to be featured coming off the back of his Oscar Award Winning documentary Free Solo.
The Ask
Do what you want.
ESPN gave complete creative freedom.
ESPN gave complete creative freedom.
The solution
The photographer was interested in expanding his career beyond photojournalism and adventure photography, and wanted to pursue entertainment and portraiture work. With this in mind, and with decades of experience in fashion, the creative director recognized an opportunity to execute an unexpected visual narrative that would pay homage to the refined aesthetic of Peter Lindbergh’s 1990s work. The concept aimed to soften the subject’s typically “hard” look, developing a story that would symbolically “birth” Honnold off the rock.
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Editorial Photography
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