From athlete to photographer: Jeff Sheng changes the world one photograph at a time

Jeff Sheng (All photos courtesy of Jeff Sheng.)

Jeff Sheng is a man with a passion for photography and activism.

Sheng, a Los Angeles-based photographer and UC Santa Barbara professor, originally wanted to be an attorney before deciding on an artistic path in photography.

"In college, I was planning to major in history and go to law school," says Sheng. "I wanted to be a civil rights attorney, but I became really interested in photography and filmmaking when I realized that those media could also be used to bring about awareness to the public about social justice issues."

After receiving his undergraduate degree from Harvard in 2002, Sheng lived and worked as an artist in New York and Boston, then returning to Southern California where he earned his MFA in Studio Arts at UC Irvine in 2007. He is currently working on two social justice art projects and shares his thoughts on art, athletes and overcoming homophobia in America.

Describe your art. How and when did you first know you wanted to be a photographer?

If I had to succinctly describe my artwork, it would be beautiful, but also thought-provoking. I like to make people think, but I also like making aesthetically pleasing images. I never did anything artistic in high school. I was an athlete up until my senior year in high school when I decided to quit playing tennis, and I suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands since I was no longer practicing 2-3 hours of tennis a day. After being incredibly bored for a few months, I enrolled in a local community college course in photography, and my parents bought me a new camera for my high school graduation. I absolutely loved taking pictures and enrolled in photography as a freshman in college as an elective. I wound up doing well in these courses and felt that this would also be a good way to integrate my creative side with my activist intentions, and majored in filmmaking and photography.

Describe how your project "Fearless" came about. Where did the idea come from? Why did you choose athletes for the above project?

As I mentioned before, I was an athlete growing up. I was never "out" in high school, but I was still really affected by the homophobia that was very present in my high school sports team. I eventually came out in college, but a lot of my decision to quit playing tennis was due to wanting to escape the constant pressure to "be straight" that playing sports often induces on young people.

In college, my first boyfriend was ironically an athlete on the water polo team at school, and also very closeted. So this experience along with my own high school one, made me think that this would be an incredible documentary photo project if I could ever get it done. I began "Fearless" in 2003, a year after I graduated from undergrad, and while I was a teaching assistant for my former photography thesis advisor at Harvard. I've been working on it since, and have so far photographed over 80 athletes around the U.S. in almost all sports and of all types of experiences. The most impact I make now is exhibiting the project at high schools and colleges in non-art spaces, such as student centers and athletic facilities, and I speak about my own experiences and also those of the athletes. I've done over forty of these shows and talks since 2006.

I actually don't select people for the project -- they contact me about wanting to photographed and as long as my schedule and finances allow for it, I photograph whoever volunteers. I don't pick and choose based on sport, gender or school. I so far have about 30 athletes I need to go photograph, but I'm constrained by both finances and my time, since I'm busy teaching full time to pay off my bills, and photography is expensive. The costs for "Fearless" are all out of my own pocket.

Tell me more about your upcoming book based on your "Fearless" project.

I'm working on a book of the project, a self-published endeavor that will include every photoshoot, and in many ways, will be very autobiographical, both of myself and also about some of the athlete's experiences. I'm choosing to self-publish the first edition to keep the costs of the book down, and also so that I could have more control over the final product. I'm hoping to finish a rough edit by November of this year, and then a first printing sometime in early Spring 2010.

How has being a gay man impacted your art?

I think a few factors have affected me that are intertwined: not just being gay, but also being an Asian American, and also being a child of immigrants to this country. You begin to see that the United States, in its brilliant and wonderful promises for equality, still has steps that it must take to really achieve that fully for everyone. Falling into multiple minorities has not just given me an awareness of my own marginalized status, but also appreciate and empathize with the struggles of other groups as much as I can. It's really made me an activist, and hence affected the art I choose to do.

What do you want others to know about you?

I'm currently working on a project that involves closeted and discharged men and women from the US military due to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It's a tough project -- I'm definitely looking for participants...

For more info: Jeff Sheng, Fearless