IN PICS | Artist Brad Walls is taking sports photography to new heights

Ann was delighted to work with Walls, saying: “Artistic swimmers spend hours every day working to achieve perfection. With Brad's eye for detail, perspective and creativity, we were able to showcase the hard work that's often lost to the naked eye.”

Walls was inspired to draw out the geometric shapes he wanted to form on paper and create in the pool. Using these drawings, Walls and Ann collaborated to bring the drawings to life. Walls said: “My aim with Katrina was to cherry-pick static positions from routines that build repetition of form and geometric sequences.”

He meticulously planned his shots beforehand, but said “80% is planned, 20% is impromptu. No matter how much planning goes into it, there'll always be an unplanned frame that looks awesome and couldn't have been preconceived. That's the nature of art.”

Walls was a finalist in the 2021 Sony World Photography Awards in two categories, placed second in the 2021 Fine Art Photography Awards “Conceptual” category, and won the 2021 prestigious Communication Arts photography competition in the “For Sale” category.

He plans to release a book to showcase the sports he's captured from above over the past three years. The book will be the first of its kind.