Randy Risling: heart-to-heart in 2012
Randy Risling - @randyrisling
When Steve asked me to post a few pix from 2012, these are the images that instantly came to mind. Seeing as it's a blog, I'll write personal captions instead of the originals. The guidelines are to observe and not get emotionally involved, but these selects come straight from the heart:
Mohammed Shamden was trying to flee from Syria to Turkey when he was ambushed by Syrian forces. His pregnant wife was shot and killed along with the driver. It was easy to tell that he loved his wife more than anything and his saddness was heartbreaking.
This is one of my favorite frames of the year. It falls short in every category for being a good technical photo but I love the emotion. It's almost as if Cameron and the horse are laughing at an inside joke. Cameron Duff and his family were told that he would probably never walk again. The only physiotherapy he has constantly been involved with over the years has been therapeutic horseback riding with CARD (Community Association for Riding Disabled).Now he rarely uses his wheelchair.
This was such a touching story. Santanna Marrocco exercises her horse Eddie at a stable just outside of Bolton. Santanna was an avid rider before losing both of her legs in a car accident. I shot a video for this story as well that can be found here.
I've included this because I simply like looking at the image. Earthship Biotecture is a construction company and home builder with several projects being built on this site near Taos, New Mexico. The recycled cans in the walls hold no structural integrity but act as spacers to reduce the amount of material used to build the walls.
I still can't get over the fact that this city was a small fishing village of 20,000 in 1979. Shenzhen, China is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with a population of over 12 million people. We were in Shenzhen covering a story about autism and the below image is one of my favorites:
Of all things, this was my most popular photo of the year in terms of social media. I tweeted this image and soon after my account was "trending" in Canada. Strange but true.
I only added this because it seems everyone else is doing it. Do you remember the gif?
Chalk this one up to the gravy assignment of the year. Very very rarely do I ever get to work for the travel section. I was shooting this knowing that the editors wanted a "poster frame" for the section. Above is the finished product.
This was by far the most ambitious project of the year for me. I drove from Toronto to L.A. and back, hitting 20 states along the way. Below is the trailer for that project:
Scott Finlay had a devastating accident in the Men's Downhill at Lake Louise in 1978. This was his first day back on the snow in 34 years. I remember sitting in the chalet with reporter Randy Starkman after this run and the atmosphere was all smiles and high-fives. Starkman had been following Scott's progress so he was ecstatic about this milestone for Scott. Continued...
45 days later, Randy Starkman was gone. That day in the chalet was the last time I worked with Randy but I'm fortunate that it wasn't the first. For anyone that knew Starkers, the picture above says it all. I miss him every day.
Which picture was your favourite?
Leave a comment below and be entered into the end of year contest, details here.
I love all of these pictures. Anymore? Please post them.
Posted by: Chee_liek Ho | 12/26/2012 at 05:22 PM