Interview with Todd Korol

Todd Korol has been a contributor to Canadian Geographic for over 20 years. He draws his inspiration from National Geographic photographers, whose work he grew up with. '[National Geographic] had a big influence for a generation of us photographers; it taught us how to be photographers, how to approach a story, how to look at one.' Now he takes those lessons to heart: For every portrait, cityscape, street photo or sports shot, the setting is just as important as the subject.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Todd Korol In his twenty-odd years as a photographer, Todd Korol has traveled around the world, with assignments in Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Central and South America and far north of the Arctic Circle. He's done street photography, captured poignant moments in sports history, mastered the science of portrait photography and delved into fine art. He has contributed to the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, Reuters and Time and Sports Illustrated magazines, among other publications. One of his very first assignments was a portrait shot for Canadian Geographic, and he's been a frequent contributor ever since. He lives in Calgary with his wife and two sons. Compare his photos of scenery and action in Korol's most recent project in Canadian Geographic and read more about his world travels on his blog. For a regular dose of Korol's photography, check out his photos on his website and on Tumblr. (Photo: Julien Ferreira)
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Q Which photographers inspired you as you were growing up?

AI really grew up with National Geographic photographers, which is probably why they're so prominent [in my blog.] Now, my photographers' repertoire is really broad. My base is National Geographic photographers though, Like William Albert Allard, David Alan Harvey, the classic National Geographic photographers.

You've got to remember, I'm old now. I'm coming to that conclusion. When I was young and growing up, there was no Internet. I grew up in a small town with nothing to see, no galleries. The only cohesive group of photos you could see was in National Geographic. That's why I was so drawn to that. Like every other photographer, I said I wanted to travel the world, meet people and work for National Geographic. It had a big influence for a generation of us photographers; it taught us how to be photographers, how to approach a story, how to look at one.

Q How has growing up in the West influenced your approach to photography?

AI think the landscape has influenced my photography. I love the Prairies. I like the mountains, but we have a saying out here: 'Mountains, they just block the view.'

AI love the vast openness, the skies, the grasslands; how you can drive through Saskatchewan and come across one farmyard for 10 miles. I love the emptiness, the loneliness and how it makes you feel. I think that has an effect on your photography.

I go to New York all the time, I would love to live there. So I don't long for emptiness. You go to New York and your photography changes, it becomes frenetic. All this stuff is going on, people get in your face, the buildings, the architecture: all of them have an influence on your photography.

It's the same in West: the openness and emptiness in those skies have a definite effect on your photography.

QThen what was it like photographing the Rockies in your most recent Canadian Geographic assignment?

AYou start looking at things differently.

[With the Rockies], you go in there, you're closed in, you've got walls up around you, weather systems rolling through and all those things start affecting you. You start seeing what you're looking for.

It's a different lifestyle. If you look at people who live on the Prairies versus people who live on mountains, it's another way of life. We all think of ourselves as being from Western Canada, but there is a big difference.

So I think as a photographer, if you're on assignment, in doing that you start searching for those things. How is it different? What's different about it? How do I search for those things that are different?

Plus, this was a travel story, which is different from a photojournalistic story. In a travel story, you're trying to give reasons why people should travel there. You're not looking for negative aspects.

QTell us about your fine art. You have some carbon prints displayed in Calgary's Paul Kuhn Gallery. How did that project come about?

AWhen I started traveling seriously, visiting different countries and cities, I started started noticing that architecture and public art really had an effect on how I viewed the city, and it really had an effect on how people view cities and places. Think about New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, all the places that have great architecture: people go there to see great buildings, great architecture, in part because that's what man has built, what we've created. It's our stamp on the world.

So I started to get interested in the concept of how architecture affects the feel of the city. I didn't want to document that in a traditional way; I didn't want to shoot in a way that was matter of fact. I didn't want people to look at my photo and see the Chrysler building.

When I started walking the streets, I engineered a lens for the camera. I built the lens, put it in some sort of casing, built a mount and put it on the camera. I went through variations and found one that worked well.

[With that lens] I can really capture the mood, feeling and spirit of a city. I was coming home with a whole different set of pictures. They emoked an emotion from the viewer'you could see a glimpse of something. During the show at the gallery, people would come and see my photos and say, 'this reminds me of this.' That's what I wanted to do: evoke emotion, feeling, the mood of a city, how a city felt.

QWhat's the secret to that lens?

AI didn't go to a camera store; I physically made the lens. I had glass elements from old lenses, put various lenses together in a bellows type thing that allowed me to pull it out and push it in to move it in and out of focus.

It was full of flaws, and it had one specific area of focus. A lot of the other area was out of focus. I really liked parts of the photograph that were out of focus; they're just as important in my photograph as the areas that were in focus.

QYou also do a lot of sports photography. What's that like?

AI shoot sports for Reuters all the time. I cover the NHL hockey season, football, Olympic sports and athletes. Sports photography, at a really great high level, is really beautiful when you can get that great angle and the perfect moment that tells the tale of what happened in the game, or the agony of defeat, or the victory of winning. They're kind of cliches, but it's wonderful to be part of that.

I got to photograph the gold medal game at Vancouver Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored [the winning goal]. It was a definitive moment and he was reacting to scoring the goal. To be there, in a moment that is now entrenched in Canadian history, to be part of those 20,000 people in the stands going crazy and knowing that over half the population of Canada was watching the game, was monumental. To photograph that, to capture it, was really exciting. It's a moment I'll never forget in my life. Visit the tips page to view the historical image of Sydney Crosby celebrating his winning goal. (Photo: Todd Korol/Reuters)

Interview by Samia Madwar