Photo Essay: Through The Lens With Austin Carfi

Austin Carfi

I met Austin Carfi by accident.

In February I wrote a story on Natalie Brassinga, a Ridgefield High School soccer player and talented artist. She sent me some artistic photos of her shot by Austin. When I needed some non-action pictures to accompany the feature, Austin took them at the last moment.

Austin expressed an interest in doing his senior internship at Ridgefield with me, focusing on photography. He shot games during the winter and spring —most recently the FCIAC baseball championship.

We encountered one issue with his internship: Austin was a member of the baseball team and largely unavailable to shoot games when I needed him. I was wondering how we would fill the necessary hours with productive work.

Then I remembered the pictures of Natalie and came up with an idea: shooting a photo slideshow of top FCIAC spring athletes in creative poses, which I thought played to Austin’s greatest talent as a photographer. Ideally we would get one player from each school and have all sports represented.

We succeeded on the latter and have players from 13 different schools. Some requests were not returned, there were some late cancellations and a couple of people opted not to be a part of the project.

I lined up the athletes, got Austin contact information, gave him background about them and some additional details with the ones I knew personally. I wanted a good mix of straight portraits and some laced with humor. I occasionally made a suggestion on an idea for a pose.

But this project belongs to Austin. He arranged all the shoots, worked with all the athletes and came up with almost all of the ideas. The subjects I have spoken with have praised Austin for his good-natured personality, professionalism and, most of all, his talent.

The few athletes who have seen their shots raved about them. I suspect they will soon be showing up as Facebook profile photos. I think what you are about to view is as strong as anything that has ever appeared on The Ruden Report. I had extremely high hopes for this venture and they have all been exceeded.

Austin will be attending UConn in the fall to study Digital Media and Design.

Austin and I would like to thank all the athletes involved who were so generous with their time.

As a reporter, there is an excitement in breaking news. As an editor, there is a similar eagerness sharing a finished product you believe is really special.

With that, enjoy Through The Lens With Austin Carfi.