Fearless
by Jeff Sheng
“Fearless” is the name of the photography project I started over 5 years ago about “out” high school and collegiate athletes who openly self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Since 2003, I’ve photographed almost 70 athletes across the United States. In 2006, I began exhibiting the project at various high schools and colleges as part of what I named, “Fearless Campus Tour.” So far, the project has been seen at over thirty campuses around the country.
The project is still ongoing (my goal is over 100 athletes before it will be published into a photobook this year) so please contact me at jeffsheng@ jeffsheng (dot)com, if you are an athlete on a high school or college sports team that wishes to be photographed for “Fearless,” or would like more information about the project.
-- Jeff Sheng
Quick notes from Jeff, May 16, 2009:
Hey everyone -- It’s been an incredibly busy couple of months for me -- just got back from a series of talks in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin campuses at Parkside, Milwaukee, and La Crosse. I also had the shows at Phillips Academy Exeter, the University of Michigan, Ithaca College, and St. George’s School in RI.
Earlier in the year, I spoke to an assembly of high school students at The Athenian School, in Danville, CA, and then spent a weekend in Minneapolis, where I photographed an athlete for “Fearless” who sadly left for Iraq week ago.
Coincidentally, I was able to also photograph him for my next big photo project “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a photo series on both closeted men and women in the US military as well as those that have been discharged due to the policy. If you are interested in being photographed for this or have any questions, please contact me directly at jeffsheng@jeffsheng(dot)com.
I’m also in the middle of a huge website rehaul of both this site and my jeffsheng.com site so stay tuned!
Last October and November were also incredibly successful! I had six exhibitions including the one at ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, CT. I have also been working on a new website for both Fearless and for my other photography work and like many things web-related, its taken longer than expected but hopefully I will have something up soon. In meantime, I’m still shooting more pictures for the project, and also planning exhibitions for 2009, along with working on the book publication.. so lots going on. Stay tuned...
The goals of “Fearless” and FearlessCampusTour.org include:
- To use photography and the visual medium to effectively educate the public and eliminate prejudice and discrimination
- To increase acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth in high schools and colleges
- To decrease homophobia in athletics
- To give LGBTQ youth an online resource for support, particularly at risk youth who feel isolated from their peers
- To help educators, administrators and coaches meet the needs of LGBTQ youth in their schools, teams and communities
Hopefully this site is a valuable resource for gay athletes, coaches, allies of the gay and transgender community, and anyone involved with sports and LGBT issues.
(Some Firefox users might be having trouble seeing the portfolio sections of this site... hopefully this will be fixed soon)
