Roller Derby Girls, Volume One

I'm always looking for new projects and opportunities to get up close and personal with people I find interesting, using my camera as an excuse to really LOOK at them and admire them for what would otherwise be awkwardly long periods of time. 

The roller derby culture was one that had been on my radar for awhile.

I spent some time this summer driving around the south and attending several different derbys. Like the dirt track series I did, each venue was drastically different and took place on different days of the week/times of the day. Some were on Saturday nights, some were on Sunday afternoons. Some were at roller rinks, others at Lodges. I started out shooting the series in black and white, but initially felt like the images were missing something so I switched to color after the first day of shooting. I revisited these images last week as I started going back through my archives to update my site. 

A special thanks to the Hard Knox Rollergirls for hosting me that night (and to Paul Seylar for coming along for the ride and lending a helping hand).