"Fearless" Kickstarter campaign

We were very pleased and honored to have Jeff Sheng present "Fearless" at the request of the FGG at Pride House in London. He's now aiming to make "Fearless" a book, via a Kickstarter campaign.

Update 8/3/12: The above 10-minute video is being exhibited at Pride House 2012 at the London Olympic Games, Aug 3-12. It is the first time that I have edited "Fearless" into a video slideshow with a voiceover of myself talking about this project, with over 100 photographs in the project so far. I decided to post it online here for those of you who are not able to make it to London. Please enjoy!

Since 2003, I (Jeff Sheng) have been photographing athletes on high school and college sports teams who also happen to self identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ), and are "out" to their predominantly straight teammates, coaches and classmates. Even though I am by training an artist and photographer, this project is highly personal for me -- as I was a former closeted athlete in high school and could not be "out" and play collegiate sports at the same time. As such, I titled the project "Fearless" as it was a reminder to myself and to others the true meaning behind the bravery of what these young people are able to do: be themselves in the face of homophobia in competitive sports -- something rarely ever seen at the professional level.

At first it was very difficult to find willing athletes for the project, but I relied heavily on trust, word of mouth, and social networking to find more and more participants. In the last 9 years, I have been able to photograph over 150 athletes across the United States and Canada for this series. Next year, 2013, will be the 10th year working on this project, and I have decided to commemorate this milestone with a self-published large photography book that details the lives and journey "Fearless" has entailed, including all of the photo shoots from the series. My hope is that this book can serve as further inspiration to countless young people who happen to be LGBTQ and suffer from bullying or harassment and live in fear about being who they are.

My fundraising target of $50,000 will make it possible for me to reach a goal of photographing over 200 athletes and to complete the final self-published book. The entire photo series is shot on medium format film and the travel costs are very high as I often have to fly to many of the athletes who ask to be photographed. Almost everything so far been mostly funded out of my own pocket or through loans/credit cards, and the lack of funding has been a major limitation to the series so far. Many athletes still contact me to be photographed and I sometimes need to limit my photo shoots, as I have never asked these participants for money to cover the costs of their photo shoots, but still need to find ways to cover the costs on my end. This fundraising goal will also make it possible to successfully publish the first run of the photo book next year.

My hope, is that with your help, I can make the decade-long vision I have had for my "Fearless" project -- finally become a reality. Every tiny bit counts, so please consider pledging something now.

Jeff Sheng radio interview about "Fearless" exhibition at Pride House and LGBT sport in general

Jeff Sheng was on public radio in Los Angeles yesterday to talk about LGBT sport, homophobia in sport, and his Pride House version of his "Fearless" exhibition.

Listen to Jeff Sheng's interview online or download the MP3 on the KPCC website.

Jeff Sheng's Pride House version of "Fearless" now available online

LONDON OLYMPICS TO FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION OF GAY ATHLETES
Nike debuts new t-shirts in support of LGBT sports photo project
LONDON, August 6, 2012 – American artist Jeff Sheng presents his project Fearless, a photography series about openly gay high school and collegiate team athletes, as part of Pride House 2012 at the London Olympic Games. The ten-minute video exhibition includes photographs of over one hundred athletes as a digital slide show with a voiceover narration by the artist. It will be on display at Pride House until the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on August 12, 2012.
 
The video can be watched and directly embedded from Vimeo or Youtube:
https://vimeo.com/46875505
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfe8SxGY7D4&feature=g-upl

Fearless is a nine-year long photography project by celebrated artist Jeff Sheng, who since 2003 has photographed over 150 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identified high school and collegiate athletes in the U.S. and Canada. The video exhibition in London is the first time the photo series has been edited and shown as a slideshow, and the first time the project has been exhibited in Great Britain. 
The debut of this work in London coincides with a fundraising drive that features T-shirts with the slogan “Fearless,” printed and donated by Nike to help raise funds for the artist to complete the project next year as a photography book (FearlessPhotobook.com). 

In the voiceover narration from the video exhibition, the artist says, “What I’ve discovered are the stories of all these unknown people. They are high school students and college students, some as young as fifteen years old, who face the really horrible prospect of being bullied, harassed or beaten up by their fellow teammates… and these young people do this incredible thing – they simply say, ‘I’m going to be who I am.'”

Marc Naimark, Pride House coordinator for the Federation of Gay Games, says of the exhibit: “By narrating the history of the project and what it means to him, Jeff Sheng has brought the power of these young lives home to viewers who see their engagement in sport and their courage in being out. It’s a lesson for us all, whatever our age, whatever our athletic pursuits.”

Fearless has been widely exhibited in the United States over the last few years, including at the corporate headquarters of both Nike and ESPN. It has also been at over fifty high school and college campuses, and in Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. 

The video exhibition is available online to allow those who are not able make it to London and Pride House to see the project. The video and more information about the Nike supported fundraising drive is at FearlessPhotobook.com

PRIDE HOUSE 2012 CONTACT: LOU ENGLEFIELD, lou@pridesports.org, UK Tel: +44 (0)7949 604610, website: pridehouse2012.org
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ABOUT JEFF SHENG:
Jeff Sheng is an artist based in Los Angeles, and was recently a visiting guest professor of photography at Harvard University in 2011. He is known for his photo series Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on closeted U.S. military service members affected by the policy of that same name, which forbid openly gay service members in the US armed forces until 2011. During the Congressional repeal of that policy between 2010-2011, Sheng’s photography series was profiled and covered by multiple media outlets including ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR and the BBC.

ABOUT PRIDE HOUSE 2012:
Pride House 2012 is a project of Pride Sports UK, in collaboration with the Federation of Gay Games, the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), GLISA International, the LGBT Consortium, and Phoenix FC, and aims to offer a welcoming space for all athletes, staff, spectators and friends of London 2012. Pride House 2012 will be open from 3 to 7 August at CA House in Limehouse Basin on the river Thames, with the Pride House 2012 festival continuing in various venues through 12 August, the day of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Jeff Sheng's "Fearless" exhibition at Pride House 2012

PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Lou Englefield, Director, Pride Sports UK
lou@pridesports.org.uk
+44 (0)7949 604610

Marc Naimark
mnaimark@gaygames.org

London, 20 July 2012
Exhibition on out student athletes added to programme of Pride House 2012
Expanded electronic version of ‘Fearless’ will make its European debut
The Federation of Gay Games and Pride House 2012 are pleased to announce the addition of a new exhibition to its programme of events for the Olympics. In addition to the already-announced exhibition ‘Against the Rules’, photographer Jeff Sheng will be showing a newly expanded electronic version of his ground-breaking exhibition ‘Fearless’.

Pride House 2012 is a project of Pride Sports UK, in collaboration with the Federation of Gay Games, the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF), GLISA International, the LGBT Consortium, and the Pride House Foundation and aims to offer a welcoming space for all athletes, staff, spectators and friends of London 2012. Pride House 2012 will be open from 3 to 7 August at CA House in Limehouse Basin on the river Thames, with the Pride House 2012 festival continuing in various venues through 12 August, the day of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Lou Englefield, Executive Director of lead partner Pride Sports, presented her pleasure at rounding out the exhibition programme with ‘Fearless’: ‘While “Against the Rules” looks at out sports icons of the past and the present, “Fearless” presents role models for today and tomorrow. We know from experience the power this exhibition can have, both as works of art and as testimony of the courage of young people today. Whatever their future in sports, they are sports heroes.’


‘Fearless’ is a long-term project of noted American photographer Jeff Sheng, who travels to high school and university campuses in the US to capture portraits of young out student athletes. Olympic speed skater and Gay Games Ambassador Blake Skjellerup attributes his own public coming out to his encounter with the exhibition at the 2010 Pride House in Vancouver, taking the courage of these young people as a model to follow.

Jeff Sheng presents the project: ‘In 2003, I began “Fearless,” documenting high school and collegiate athletes who openly self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender and are “out” to their predominantly straight teammates and coaches.  Since then, I’ve photographed over 150 athletes across the United States and Canada for this series. In 2006, I began exhibiting the project at various high schools and colleges as part of what I named the “Fearless Campus Tour”. So far, the project has been seen at over fifty college and high school campuses around the United States, as well as ESPN headquarters, the 2009 International LGBT Human Rights conference at GLISA World Outgames in Copenhagen, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and at Nike World Headquarters. I’m very happy to now bring it in an electronic format to Pride House during the Olympics.’

Les Johnson, co-chair of the Federation of Gay Games’ External Affairs committee, spoke of his own encounter with Jeff Sheng at the recent Nike LGBT Sport Summit: ‘Jeff is both talented and motivated in using his art as a tool for social change. In parallel with “Fearless Campus Tour”, he undertook a new project to portray closeted US military personnel under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. With regard to athletes, we know the difficulties of young people, and in particular young athletes, in coming out. Those shown in the exhibition are truly “fearless”. I’m very pleased that despite time and budget constraints, Jeff responded to my request to participate in Pride House by offering an electronic version of the exhibition, which we hope will inspire others to come out.’

Sheng added: ‘Beyond the pleasure of being part of the experience of the Olympics, this exhibition coincides with the relaunch of my website in view of my new project to turn “Fearless” into a book, like those I produced for my “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” series.’

More about Pride House 2012 at http://pridehouse2012.org and http://www.facebook.com/pridehouse2012

Learn more about “Fearless” at http://www.fearlessproject.org

Jeff Sheng's new Facebook page

The Federation of Gay Games adds its thoughts to our friend, photographer Jeff Sheng, on the official end yesterday to the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

After his "Fearless Campus" project, a series of photographic profiles of out collegiate athletes, Jeff launched "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", featuring closeted US military personnel. The associated exhibitions and book became one part of the campaign against this discriminatory policy, and we are happy to let you know that he has a new Facebook page for his work, including "Fearless": facebook.com/JeffShengPhoto

Oh, and today's Jeff's birthday! Happy birthday from the FGG!