Working (thinking) harder.

Most of my friends know that I’ve had a thing for Vincent Laforet, his pictures and his work ethic for a long time and I though I might as well include all of you in that circle. Laforet is a man of many talents and after years as a staff photographer for the New York Times he now serves as their first contract photographer in addition to undertaking other freelance work. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his work in Afghanistan following September 11, created a group of iconic images defining Hurricane Katrina, and was named on of PDN’s 30 under 30 (30 under 30 is a contest through which PDN selects the 30 best photographers in the country under the age of 30). Laforet is nothing if not a dedicated, passionate and hard working photojournalist and it is because of his work ethic he has skyrocketed in the world of photojournalism. Beyond just going out and working, working working Laforet is also thinking. From how to get access when nothing is possible all the way to how he’s going to take a major event witnesses each year by millions of people, like the U.S. Open, and show it to them in a way they’ve never seen before – Laforet is using his brain.

There’s a slew of pictures made by Laforet that I could use to illustrate this point, but the most recent is a series of photographs he created of major sporting events using tilt shift lenses. Using these lenses allowed him to control the depth of field and focus, and thereby boiling the event down to it’s real essence: the winning moment, the breaking wave, the finish line.

The New York Time did a special piece with Laforet where he talks both about his motives for shooting these images and the thought process that created it. To see that piece, and I really recommend that you do, click HERE.