Photographing Runners - Photographing Communities #1
Since moving to Southampton, I have always been curious about the number of runners in the city. Down every street you are likely to find someone running past. Everyone of these people have a story, why did they start running, do they run with other people, is it serious or is it to get outside? This was the starting point of my idea, who are these blurred figures that go around the city.
This idea was also interesting to look at from a personal perspective, as someone who runs occasionally, the stories behind running can be an interesting perspective. Looking further into this idea, I felt there was something more that I should achieve with this series – a further motivation. Talking to my lecturer, we thought about women running clubs or the idea of night-time running clubs to create a message about women safety or even just a running club that is specifically targeted to women to get involved. This discussion helped me to realise the depth that this could go.
When considering the visual inspiration for a project like this, I wanted to focus on enhancing my techniques and experimenting with new equipment and styles that I have seen through various sports photographers, taking the long exposures I achieved last time into action based long exposures. However, the centre of community is important, resulting in me looking at traditional documentary photographers to see how they capture a group and convey a narrative through their lens.
Introduced to Jeff Wall and his impressively staged candidness in his ‘cinematography’ (Gagosian 2024), the way he captures events with carefully crafted settings creates a slightly surreal-natural blend of imagery. This high production level of photography is outside of the scope for my project, however the style of which he can show what can be a normal environment in a completely artificial way can be transferred to the real world as well. The composition and lighting stand out as intricate and is interesting to learn from and take notes for my project.
Jeff Wall - Monologue - 2013 Jeff Wall - Weightlifter - 2015 Jeff Wall - In front of a nightclub - 2006 Jeff Wall - After "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue - 1999-2001
My intention for this project is to push me to be more experimental both in-camera and additionally in post-production as well to learn more about photography and the power of storytelling in the format. I aim to do this by doing multiple shoots to build my techniques and confidence– aiming for roughly three or more to get the ideal iterative development. After I do a shoot, I want to spend time editing and understanding the results to better learn what works and what I would want to change in the future. I am aiming for eight to ten images that capture the essence of what it is like to feel involved in a running community.
Looking at other sports photographers for inspiration, I looked to professional sports photographers including on the world sports photography awards to look for interesting approaches even if it doesn’t fit with the community focus of this project. These images helped me and eventually led me to find another photographer called Paul Eichengrun who did a series that used off camera flash to photograph runners. The results of this shoot look interesting and provide a more visual depth to the photos. Paul made a post about this shoot mentioning a few details that stood out to me. Firstly, Paul mentions that this was more of an experiment to photograph different people and environments, “Lately I’ve been looking for ways to photograph people besides just my friends and family.” (Eichengrun). Eichengrun reflects later on talking about using multiple light sources and using different angles to create a stronger effect.
Paul Eichengrun 
Paul Eichengrun 
Paul Eichengrun 
Paul Eichengrun
Another photographer I found is called Sam Bénard. Bénard’s photography tends to focus more on individual athletes, however his visual identity and approach to photography is something that stood out to me. The colour grading of the photos look contemporary in this trend of pastel and muted tones that is common. However, the visual style creates a different look compared to reality, a dreamy vision almost. Two projects stood out looking at Bénard’s work, a series called ‘Night Trails’ and ‘LDN on 8’.
‘Night Trails’ follows Bénard capturing a runner in the darkness of the woods, capturing almost fragmented parts of the runners as they pass the camera. The series is more atmospheric and the subjects (when they are in frame) pop out and create this sense of darkness and speed showing the difficulty of the scenario to both run in addition to photographing.
Sam Bénard - Night Trails 
Sam Bénard - Night Trails 
Sam Bénard - Night Trails 
Sam Bénard - Night Trails
‘LDN on 8’ focuses on flash photography in urban London and using motion blur to create bright and contrasting photos of the roller-skates. The shutter speed on some of the photos create an interesting ghosting effect where the edges of people become transparent whilst their body remains to create an interesting perception of speed. This is consistent throughout the series, making a style that feels similar to Eichengrun but in a more controllable environment.
Sam Bénard - 'LDN on 8' 
Sam Bénard - 'LDN on 8' 
Sam Bénard - 'LDN on 8' 
Sam Bénard - 'LDN on 8'
Applying this to my community project, the usage of a camera flash or an off-camera flash could make my project more interesting and provide a professional style despite being in the field. The results of using flash photography with motion create an interesting approach of both making the subject stand out whilst exaggerating the motion blur from the light. This approach is something that I feel would be interesting for my project.
References
BÉNARD, S., a. LDN On 8 - Sam Bénard Photography [viewed Mar 11 2025]. Available from: https://www.sambenard.com/projects/ldn-on-8
BÉNARD, S., b. Night Trail - Sam Bénard Photography [viewed Mar 11 2025]. Available from: https://www.sambenard.com/projects/salomon-night-trail
EICHENGRUN, P., Moments Inc » Shooting Photos of 10K Runners with an Off-Camera Flash. In: ourmoments.org. [viewed Mar 11, 2025]. Available from: https://ourmoments.org/shooting-photos-of-10k-runners-with-an-off-camera-flash/
GAGOSIAN, 2024. Jeff Wall [viewed Mar 11 2025]. Available from: https://gagosian.com/artists/jeff-wall/
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