Simon Bruty's Heavy-Medal Cover Shot

Although short on photographic details, Sports Illustrated has a pleasant feature about Simon Bruty shooting the cover for this week's magazine. Michael Phelps "helped arrange the medals around the necks of both [Simone] Biles and [Katie] Ledecky, artfully dovetailing the discs and smoothing the ribbons. It looked as if he had done this before."

That must have been a fun and memorable session.

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

Adrian Malloch: "I always find it interesting to observe how other photographers interact with the talent and turn the shoot into something that is their own.

"Simon Bruty is clearly adept at getting what is needed from his subjects.

"As he starts to position the athletes, Phelps moves out of position to help Ledecky with her medal display. Instead of interfering, Bruty turns his attention to Biles and fusses for a while, allowing the moment to continue between the athletes.

"Notice also how he addresses each person in turn, saying their name and what he wants from them as he grabs them by the shoulders, manhandling the athletes into position. He wouldn't be as physical with say a CEO or a classical musician. But for each different subject he would create an appropriate physical interaction.

"Touching a subject before the shoot is a vital part of creating a human connection between the photographer and the subject. It needs to be done both sensitively (to the subject and the situation) but with meaning and purpose. Done well, the subjects will be themselves, still be caught up in the moment but willingly following the photographer's lead and direction."

Comments

[Hugh O. Smith]

According to the IOC, "The IOC works closely with local organisers for almost a decade to stage an edition of the Olympic Games that best fits into the social, environmental and long-term development plan of the host region."
It is sad that the Olympiads had to go through the the mess that is Rio to get to the gold. (But, this is about the photograph and I digress.
Politics aside, congrats to Simon Bruty.
Mi dos pesos

[Speed]

Not a complaint about TOP but a comment about SI and others.

A 30 second commercial as a lead-in to a 90 second video? And if you want to watch it again you get to see another 30 second ad. Without Mike's recommendation I would have killed it in about two seconds.

[Glenn Allenspach]

Who knew that there might be second career as an Olympic Medal Stylist?

[Stephen Scharf]

Reminds me of of seeing a Mark Spitz Olympics poster of years ago depicting Spitz adorned with his 7 medals and entitled "You're so vein..." (misspelling intentional).

[s.wolters]

Here is a nice article about the Republic of Phelps:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2016/08/14/489832779/if-michael-phelps-were-a-country-where-would-his-gold-medal-tally-rank

What helps Phelps is of course that there are so many Olympic swimming distances, but even then it is an enormous achievement. Will anybody ever catch up?

Somehow many love the medal race between the countries even more than the sports. Especially when they live in the ones on top. But they should study this:
http://www.medalspercapita.com/#medals-per-capita:2016

[hugh crawford]

I'm really puzzled by the choice of background. There has got to be a technical reason for that choice because is sure isn't because it looks good.

[hugh crawford]

And as soon as I hit the submit button I realized that it is not supposed to look like cheap vinyl upholstery, but that it is supposed to look like gold.

You would think the art director would know better.

[Jim]

Just goes to show that using illegal drugs doesn't get in the way for some folks. Phelps and his pot arrest - and he is still going to Olympics.

[Geoffrey Heard]

s.wolters makes a good point about the number of swimming races that a swimmer can do in one games. Phelps competed in six events in this games. In track and field, Usain Bolt is entered in just three events: the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay. A marathon runner might run fewer races in a year than a swimmer swims in one games/championships. In addition, until the '70s (I think it was), Olympic athletes were all amateurs so they couldn't make an overly extended commitment to their sport at the top level. There was one Australian champion back in the early 1900s who was banned from the Olympics because he took a job as a teacher in the Department of Education and was teaching swimming. And there were wars and whatnot that intervened too, and in 1980 and 1984 and boycotts and bannings.

There is no question that Phelps is among the greatest, but whether he actually is The Greatest, given the opportunities in his field and in the time he lives and swims in, is open to discussion. What about the great Finnish long distance runner, Paavo Nurmi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi and later, the Czech, Emil Zatopek?

If only one can be The Greatest, I would have to go with Nurmi.

Cheers, Geoff

[Mark Jennings]

Much decorated people get to know the camera. The late American F1 champion Phil Hill posed for me in front of a 50s Ferrari racing barchetta. Something was missing. "OK Phil, take off your driving gloves and then put them back on....keep doing it..... is someone tickling you?" It worked. Later I heard that shy Phil was offering the exercise at every shoot.

But there are photographers and there are photographers, and some do have a way. Near where I live on the side of a mountain in WV there lurks a curmudgeonly sort of fellow who..... Well. You should see his faces. He brings out things I don't think the subjects knew they had in themselves. The sheriff looks like he just got blessed by the Pope. How do you do that Laurie Cameron? Are you reading this?

[David]

There's apparently more to this image- his sponsors won't be happy!

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-off-the-field/under-armour-rio-olympics-star-michael-phelps-wearing-nike-on-sports-illustrated-cover-in-colossal-screwup-20160818-gqw464.html

[Anthony]

Well this shot turned out to be much mute controversial than anyone expected... And all because of one logo.

[Dennis Ng]

It seemed they change into 4 seconds advertisement which is acceptable. In fact you click another advertisement there are more. (What district me more is these day they are so sharp at the same time the depth of field is controlled so well. Amazing as a video.)

Politics is always with Olympics because it is about nations. Other than news I did not so far watch even one event as they only showed Chinese team mainly here in Hong Kong. Do not like the way they do sport there, not to mention the politics against China these days for quite many Hongkonger. (In fact the Chinese parents themselves are not like that as well, when they have one child and there is no such thing as your interest in gym. or sports. They select 3,000 gym. but people found out there is more than 4,000 clubs in USA for gym.) Do think of the Hong Kong team, but they are not doing well and quite a disappointment year.

Still, such good talents and personality. Good bless you guys ... really need that this Nov. I guess ... politics you know.