The Making of ESPN’s Body Issue

Sep 242016

archive : 2016

The Making of ESPN’s Body Issue

Eight years ago, ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue set out with one mission: to celebrate and explore the athletic form through powerful images and interviews. Today, the issue’s cornerstone photo portfolio is one of the most highly anticipated releases of the summer. Our panelists will take you behind the scenes to discuss how the issue comes together, and the creative process of working with world-class professional athletes at their most vulnerable.

Presenters: Benedict Evans Peter Hapak Neely Lohmann Joe Pugliese

Moderators: Karen Frank

Location: Brooklyn Bridge Park – Water Street

Presented by:

Eight years ago, ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue set out with one mission: to celebrate and explore the athletic form through powerful images and interviews. Today, the issue’s cornerstone photo portfolio is one of the most highly anticipated releases of the summer. Our panelists will take you behind the scenes to discuss how the issue comes together, and the creative process of working with world-class professional athletes at their most vulnerable.

Presenter Bios

Benedict Evans

Benedict Evans’s photography has been published in New York, The Guardian Weekend, WIRED and Esquire, and he has shot assignments for Budweiser and Cadillac. He assisted photographer Platon for five years before striking out on his own. Selected for PDN’s 30 2017: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch, he has also been honored in American Photography 31 and 32, the PDN Photo Annual and other awards.
Peter Hapak

Peter Hapak is a contract photographer at TIME magazine and shoots for various publications and advertising agencies. He has shot more than a dozen athletes for the BODY issue over the years, most recently Vince Wilfork, Nzingha Prescod and Adeline Gray.
Neely Lohmann

Neely Lohmann has been the senior deputy editor at ESPN the Magazine for five years. Prior to ESPN, she was the editor in chief of mental_floss magazine.
Joe Pugliese

Joe Pugliese has recently completed photo projects for Wired, Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal and Billboard magazines, as well as advertising campaigns for Netflix, Sony and AMC. For the 2016 edition of the BODY Issue, Pugliese shot motocross racer Ryan Dungey and paratriathlete Allysa Seely.

Moderator Bios

Karen Frank

Karen Frank is the Director of Photography at ESPN, The Magazine. Karen began her career as a Director of Photography at GQ Magazine. She went on to work at O — The Oprah Magazine in it’s beginning days — helping to establish the visual identity of the magazine. Since then, Frank has worked at numerous other publications, including More Magazine, Conde Nast Portfolio, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Frank has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Organizations

ESPN

The motto of ESPN is to serve sports fans anytime, everywhere. Since the sports network was first created in 1979, ESPN has grown into a global multimedia company that reaches fans in all corners of the world, on any device. ESPN’s Photo Department has taken this mission and dived into the lives of athletes willing to open their doors and have their stories told.

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