Its always good to return to the your roots....and for Tomba-Images Photography stepping away from traditional photography of corporate portraits, weddings ,architectural and yes the Art World in to Action Sports Photography my roots certainly are at the Garfield Park Golden Dome Field house in Chicago. As anyone who has ever asked me how I started photographing Boxing and MMA they heard this story.
Available as a limited edition print ...
Sparring's Session Over for the Day......They will be back tomorrow Click for Light-box
In 2003 , without looking up the date , I believe in Fall ...I was photography the complete interior (every room, nook and Canny, staircase) of the Garfield Park Field House. This was somewhat serious for me as it took a half dozen visits and almost a year to get approval. This was back in the day using Medium Format Mamiya RB67 , processing my own negatives and printing my own color prints....One of the last rooms I walked into that I had never been in, tho saw the American flag from the outside was "George Hernandez's gym" .....fighters sparring, everybody sweating, little different odors and much stronger then the rest of the Fieldhouse, George always yelling at somebody...I started taking shots, would print and get back there giving out the prints ...and repeating that every chance I could ...George Hernandez took me under his wing as he does with countless kids, wanna-bee Champions and World Class Champions and I never looked back ..Right or wrong my career path set ....
Jumping ahead to December 7th 2015, I was commissioned to take group portraits of George's "Broke Team" and the feeling's for George Hernandez and the Garfield Park Fieldhouse Gym hasn't changed one bit ...I still love everything about that gym...George don't ever think about retiring , we ...We being Chicago, Chicago Kids, Chicago Champions need a guy like you to keep the Garfield Park Field House running and to make sure no one changes it.
Complete Photo session images can be viewed at;
https://secure.sendtoprint.net/login.php?g=GarfieldParkBrokeTeamSparring
https://secure.sendtoprint.net/login.php?g=BrokeTeam122015
or by visiting www.tomba-images.com in the banner click on > Photo galleries/ commerce site ..on the next page click on > Photo Galleries ...
Cheers, Tomba