ABOUT
| ROBERT BECK |
| That's me there on the left...On top of the world or as close as I could get when I was south of my teen years. Actually I'm in Denver during a cross country trip my family took prior to the Beatles U.S. invasion. Dad drove the two tone '59 Ford Galaxie 500, Mom navigated and Sis and I watched the cornfields wiz by from a backseat bigger than most hotels we checked into. We always seemed to be 20 miles from somewhere and 30 miles from somewhere else. No seatbelts. No airbags. No Seven Elevens. A very simple and humble slice of Americana. I read a lot of comic books, became quite artistic with an Etch-a-Sketch and told my sister to "Go fish" a little over a million times. My Dad took a lot of pictures on that trip. I don't think I took one. I didn't get the photo bug until my mid twenties. But I've been snappin' a lot of photos since then. First as a staffer for Surfer Magazine where my only job requirement was to go to a beach everyday and make beautiful pictures. Hawaii, Australia, California, Mexico, Brazil, France. How hard was that? Not very. In 1986 I shot my first assignment for Sports Illustrated, the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. An image from that take became a spread in SI and one of Life Magazine's Pictures of the Decade. After the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, SI made me a staffer. I've covered a lot of big events through those years...The Masters, Super Bowls, the World Series, NBA Finals, Olympics, Stanley Cups and so on. But it is the one on one stuff I enjoy the most. I have been lucky enough to work with some great people: Wayne Gretzky, Rod Laver, Karch Kiraly, Kelly Slater, Shaq, Tony Hawk, Shaun White, Pele, Brandi Chastain, Michelle Kwan, Tiger, Emmitt Smith, Dwight Howard, Wilt, Bill Russell, Monica Seles, Jimmie Johnson and Will Ferrell (!) to name a few. Working with those athletes, among many others, is a perk that comes with the territory at SI. I honed my skills shooting action and features. I learned how to provide editors with interesting portraits, usually in a short time frame. Now I'm looking to spread my wings a bit. The Magazine has loosened the reins and I have time to work on outside projects. If you've got one, drop me a line. I'm ready to go. |
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