I have another installment of my very exciting portrait project. I love my community and there are some amazing people making Rhode Island a wonderful place to live. I have decided to photograph the people who are really making “IT” happen here in my community in a (hopefully) creative and fun way that tells a story about who those people are and what they are doing for their little section of the world.

This is John Ford he owns Manic Training John is a man who has helped me to change my body; I can now say with confidence that I am strong. I am turning 39 in a month, and all my life I have been very happy with the way that I looked and felt. I’m not one of those low self-esteem kind of people, but I have also known that I’m not a particularly physically strong person, either. So to reach middle age (oh my god really!!! middle age wow) and to have such a different view of myself is really a wonderful experience. This has come out of some really hard work. I owe that to John Ford and Manic Training. John is a patient teacher, the kind of trainer that will push you to the next level without being a jerk about it. Always attentive but never pushy. You can see by this photo that he takes his own health and well-being seriously. I am extremely proud of this portrait we created. If you have ever worked hard to achieve a goal, you know that there is struggle, determination and hope all mixed together. I feel that we got that across in this portrait.

Click on the photo to see it at its proper size and watch the video below to find out more about the project.

John Ford from Manic Training for the Rhode Island Portrait Project

I have another installment of my very exciting portrait project. I love my community and there are some amazing people making Rhode Island a wonderful place to live. I have decided to photograph the people who are really making “IT” happen here in my community in a (hopefully) creative and fun way that tells a story about who those people are and what they are doing for their little section of the world.

This most recent portrait is of Erich Manser. Erich is an extra-ordinary individual. Not only is he a world-class athlete, but he is legally blind. When I 1st saw Erich in the “Firm Man” triathlon I was mystified 1st at how incredibly fast he was moving but also my mind spun thinking about the difficulty of what he was doing (swimming 1.2 miles in open ocean, running 13.1 miles and biking 56 miles) with out the sight that you and I enjoy and use to navigate the world. He has a limited vision and describes what he can see as looking through a pair of toilet paper rolls with wax paper covering the ends, and he is loosing his eyesight more with every passing day.He is guided through these races by another racer of equal or better athletic ability, they tie a rope to each other for the swim and he runs with his hand on the guides shoulder, and then they ride a tandem bike.

 I really wanted to honor Erich with this portrait. We met to talk about the concept and he explained that before he has starting loosing his eyesight he had been a swimmer and now swimming is his strongest section of the race for him. So we decided to create this portrait in the water. We got up in the dark and went down to the Ocean and waited for the sun light to emerge. So the portrait was actually created before the sunrise in the pre-dawn light.

Here is a link to Erich’s Blog and some more info on his inspirational story.

Dig his tag line, “You don’t need eyesight to have vision” I can only hope my vision does justice to this great man.

Click on the photo to see it at its proper size and watch the video below to find out more about the project.

Erich Manser for the Rhode Island Portrait Project