This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

Atiba Jefferson, Part owner of TheSkateboardMag and a freelance photographer, says he is 29 years old, but guessing from the size of his portfolio, I think he might be lying. Though most famous in the click-ish circles of skateboarding, in his ten-year career, Atiba has exposed the light reflected from innumerable sport stars. From his beginnings as a contributing shooter for TransWorld Skateboarding, his resume has blossomed into a roll call for sporting clients: NBA, ESPN, and Nike to name just a few. The word ‘legend’ has been thrown around between those in the know-that always seems to happen when someone outside of a subject becomes indelibly linked to that subject-and not too many photographers are as allied to their subjects as Atiba is to skateboarding. To be familiar with his work is to understand the rise of skateboarding from underground illegality to the X Games’ biggest draw. But in his 10 years of photo experience, he’s never shot soccer. Until now.

Researching my subject before our short phone interview, something dawned on me. With skating’s history splayed out on my desk, I realized no such history exists for soccer. There is no proper time line, no material conscience telling the story of soccer in America. Falling within the designation of a athletic sub culture, where these artistic associations, or at least the opportunities for them, are more common, soccer is waiting for its Atiba. Could Atiba become that for soccer as he has for skateboarding? Could Atiba be Atiba again?

While that might be wishful thinking, the combination of Atiba and soccer can only mean that at least the search has begun. Often in our corporate world, it is the successful commercialization of something that defines its success. Bruce Arena spoke to this point when he talked about the need for fans to support soccer by as he put it, being good consumers. The marriage of Atiba, who has proven he can bring a cultural aesthetic to his work, with US Soccer might be the beginnings of such growth, an important prehistoric cog when future generations look back on soccer’s then infantile popularity machine. The wheels, if you will, are in motion.

So, with little knowledge of soccer or its stars, Atiba entered the Nike shoot with no preconceived notions and almost no idea of who was who. Atiba, meet Nike’s soccer stars. Soccer stars, meet Atiba.

Because of the circumstance, his unfamiliarity with soccer juxtaposed with his immense experience with other sports and its stars, Atiba held the unique perspective best described as the educated blank canvas. A blank canvas because he knew little of the players. Educated because this type of thing is old hat for Atiba. How would the players and sport fare held under the lens? He was kind enough to share with me his innocent insights of the players, their sport, and what the experience told him about the state of the game.

The Background

AJ: I started skating at 13 and kind of figured out I’d never be a professional so I might as well start finding something else to do, and that’s when I started doing photography. My first shoot was for TransWorld in my hometown of Colorado Springs. I worked for them for about 8 years before doing a lot more stuff besides just skateboarding.

The Equipment

Hasslebald H1 - medium format film camera
Canon Eos 1D – digital 35 mm camera

The Shoot

Freddy Adu, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Johnson at the Home Depot Center
AJ: It was kind of on the fly. They [Nike] were shooting a bunch of stuff for the internet and videos and print. It was a huge shoot, and I was on the side. In between the other stuff, the video interviews, I would get them for a couple minutes to shoot stylized portraits and a little bit of action. I was also shooting all the behind the scenes photos of the other shoots. I set up and would just get photos when I could, sneaking around the other sets, while also having my own set up off to the side where the players would come see me in certain outfits to get a portrait or a shot of them playing around with a ball.

Fish Eye Photos Are Cool

AJ: I shoot stuff the way I want to shoot it. I think if you looked at the photos I shot that day and you compared them to portraits I’ve done of NBA players or skateboarders, I kind of meshed my skateboarding action with my basketball portraiture, I guess. And that is kind of the way I shoot everything, but if you notice I used a lot of poses I’ve used when I shoot Kobe Bryant or Ben Gordon and then there are also angles I used when I shot skateboarding action of Paul Rodriguez or Eric Kosten or Tony Hawk. Like, for example, the fish-eye photos which are pretty standard in skating, it was funny to see how excited everyone on set got about those. But it was cool that people were excited about something I learned from skating and was able to bring to the table with this shoot.

Film or Digital

AJ: I shot probably 80% digital and 20% film. And I got a real presence that they [Nike] chose these top guys to represent soccer and you want film on that. These guys seem to me the legends in the sport of soccer for the years to come, so for me to have the opportunity to shoot that, I wanted to get that on film b/c obviously these dudes are going to be the next guys. And medium format is the perfect format for that, but I’m also a huge digital photography fan. I really like to shoot stuff digitally, and people love it on the set because everyone can see it. I try to use the best of both worlds.

What’s Going On With Soccer

AJ: This was my first soccer shoot, and it was definitely different in the way that I’m used to shooting skateboarders or NBA players. Shooting these guys was a lot different because they were, I don’t know, I’ve shot NHL players before, and it was kind of similar. They seem to be a lot more relaxed. More humble-not in a bad way-as compared to the NBA players. Those guys are huge huge huge stars, you know. There’s a difference between how relaxed Eddie [Johnson] was compared to Kobe Bryant. But at the same time, it was cool to kind of get inside of their world, in a sense, and see what’s going on with soccer. I think the soccer guys were as relaxed as the skaters are, like Paul Rodriguez or someone. They’re hanging out on the set. They were a lot more open in conversation and just communicating more than some of the NBA players. They’re a little more down to earth I guess because everything hasn’t gotten so hectic with their lives yet like the NBA players. I know everyone is trying to be their friends of course, and they probably aren’t trying to make new ones, where as these soccer players are a lot more open. That was really interesting thing.

One thing Atiba found going on with Soccer:

The Adu Effect

AJ: When I got him I could tell it was like “ok, you’ve got Freddy, you’ve got a couple seconds.” You can definitely tell when the main star, which is nothing against the other guys, but, I take it Freddy is the biggest dude right now in soccer, and he did need to leave earlier to catch a flight, so maybe it was only because of that, but he just had that buzz around him.

I Love This Game

AJ: The biggest thing I noticed is the athletes also seem to be very passionate about their sport, almost like a skateboarder will be. They always seem to want to be doing it, where a lot of these… I don’t want it to seem like I’m constantly bad mouthing these NBA players, but some won’t want to do action stuff in the off season, which is cool, I understand they don’t want to get hurt, but the soccer guys didn’t mind doing action at all. They really seemed to be psyched to do action during the photo shoot. I’ll find the NBA players don’t want to even shoot a jump shot properly, where as these guys were totally into doing whatever you needed them to do. Eddie, for example, had an injured foot, but from time to time I’d see him dribbling the ball, doing little tricks. It was almost like you had to take the ball away from him. I was like “Dude, cut it out,” because you could tell he was getting psyched about everything. That was cool to see his passion for the sport.

Everything I Know About Soccer, i learned In The 2nd Grade

AJ: I grew up playing soccer a lot as a little kid, like a little little kid – from like 2nd to 5th grade at school lunch we played soccer. I knew who Pele was obviously, and that is who everyone wanted to be. Then as I grew older I really didn’t watch soccer at all. I have a couple English friends who are really big soccer fans and my twin brother played in a league until he was 21. I’ve always loved soccer, I have a few soccer balls in my house, you know, I kick around. But I had no idea. Obviously I knew who Freddie was because I watch a lot of Sportscenter and I remember when he came into the league and he was a really big deal, but I can’t pick out any of the other guys, you know. So in that regard, I’ve been psyched for soccer, I think it is a great sport and obviously time that it gets some real recognition in the US. I mean look how many younger kids really have a passion for it. That’s cool. I don’t really know the rules of soccer, beyond you can’t touch it with your hands unless you’re the goalie. I really just know what I learned in the second grade. So it was great to get turned on to that world and get a peak inside what’s going on.

Lasting impressions

AJ: I didn’t know much going in, but I left feeling like Wow, these guys are really professional. And it seemed like they had been well brought up to be professionals more so than some of the guys in skateboarding or basketball. I’ve worked where people don’t take shoots as seriously. All three athletes were cooperative and listening and asking what they needed to do. They did it well. It made it a lot easier for me to get my job done.

As far as the sport, it was cool to see how young it was and how diverse it was. From Landon being your Southern California Kid to Eddie and his almost hip-hop, NBA flair. And then Freddy is just 100% kid. It was almost like someday your shooting Brad Miller and Allen Iverson in one shoot, if you know what I mean. It was different and cool to see. Maybe that was just this shoot, but it made the game seem really exciting because you don’t know what each player’s stuff is going to be like.

Check out Atiba’s portfolio for yourself at www.atibaphoto.com.