randal ford: for the love of the sport
Randal Ford’s love of portraiture began when he was a photojournalism student at Texas A&M. “I just fell in love,” he says. “I fell in love with creating a picture versus taking a picture. And I fell in love with working with the person on the other side of the camera to capture their likeness.” It was during these initial forays into the field that Ford saw Richard Avedon’s In the American West exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum, and in Avedon, Ford recognized how a distinct aesthetic edge could bring narrative and image even closer together.
Ford has been chasing that edge ever since. Over the course of his career, he’s had many opportunities to define his eye and hone his skill, working in both commercial and fine art spaces. With two recent personal projects, Ford sought to create portraits of a few of his other loves: BMX biking and skateboarding. “I’ve always enjoyed the sports that aren’t super mainstream,” Ford says, sharing that in addition to playing football and running track, he also skateboarded for much of his youth (and is an avid ping-pong player!).
Ford conceived of both shoots as ways to diversify his portfolio. He wanted to show a broader range of work and represent a particular focus on candid moments and movement, while stylistically anchored to his portraiture aesthetic.
Producer Amy Whitehouse connected Ford to ex-professional BMX rider Jim Bauer and his young daughter, Charlee. The two arrived at a BMX track in Northeast Austin with matching hot-pink bikes, and Ford went to work capturing the free-flowing ease of connection between the two. “From the moment they arrived, I knew we had the makings of a great photo essay,” says Ford. “We took a combination of portraits and action shots resulting in a little library of work that tells the story of them together, sharing the love of the sport.”
The skateboarding project had an even higher degree of candor, with Ford finding the main talent for the shoot on Craigslist: a 14-year-old skateboarder who arrived on set with two of his friends. “We didn’t do any wardrobe styling. The clothes were their own—and probably cooler than anything we would’ve selected,” Ford laughs. Hours were spent with Ford allowing the friends to be themselves on their boards. “These kids were undeniably hip,” he shares, “and incredibly sweet and full of laughs. The story is about that: friends hanging out at the park.”
By way of his own telling, and confirmed by the photos that were created, it’s clear these projects were a breath of fresh air for Ford—a divergence from the high-production commercial shoots that has brought him back to his first loves.