Eliesa Johnson Photography

One year ago, North Minneapolis was hit by a tornado that was pretty devastating to the community.  North is probably one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in our city that could have been hit and I had the great honor of taking on this assignment to document the people and neighborhoods of devastation, one year after the tornado. I understand that North gets a bad wrap. Because of our media, everyone thinks that North is all about poverty, drugs and shootings. However, I experienced a completely different side of the people here. I highly, highly encourage you all to go out and pick up an issue of Metro, if not for any other reason thank to read this article. It’s solid and it’s real. In fact, I’m pretty proud of the writers and Metro for publishing something a little controversial. The feature hits all of the key points, different perspectives on the clean-up of North and how it has effected the community. Yet, the fact still stands that one year later, there are still families in shelters, blue tarps on the roofs and uprooted trees that haven’t been dealt with.

On a personal note, while shooting this story, I took one of my all-time-favorite pictures…ever. I wandered into the old Broadway Liquors one day, not thinking that anyone was inside, but I found a little boy, probably about 10 years old, who was devoting his spring break to cleaning up the store. In fact, there were several children lending their support to clean up their community on this day and it was quite inspirational. Not only did the people of North open up their homes to me, but they also shared their perspective and thoughts on how much of a struggle the last year has been. I think one of my subjects, Jeriland Spence said it best, ” There’s no calvary coming to the Northside. The thing that has to be done here needs to come from within.”

Photographing this story definitely changed my entire view of the people and community of North Minneapolis. My hope is that for every terrible news story you hear about this neighborhood, that you remember and realize how many good people are working to rebuild the Northside into a positive place.

If you are interested in helping the people of North Minneapolis re-build, here’s a link to donate to: The Northside Home Fund by The Minneapolis Foundation

My very first job as a photographer was for a newspaper. This is where I totally fell in love with the idea of doing this for the rest of my life. I loved being on assignment, rushing to meet a deadline and sharing my images with a community on a daily basis. This also meant that I was critiqued by an entire community on a daily basis, which was one of the best experiences I could have had right off the bat. As time has gone on, it seems like more of the commercial and editorial work I’ve been getting hired for is a little more glamorous, a little more controlled and very scheduled. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but when I got a call from the Art Director over at Metro about this story (and another I’ll be blogging about tomorrow), I was instantly in love…I was back on assignment!

In the current issue of Metro Magazine, I have two stories that are very documentary. The first is all about female body builders and their lives. Beyond the group shot that was published, I tried to get to every woman’s home/work life, as well as their gym time. It was fascinating to learn about their lifestyle, routines and very calculated schedules to get ready for competition. Each of the women I photographed were in training and ‘leaning out’ over the course of several weeks to be in-shape, and as we imagine body-builders being! It was also kind of nice to know that these women aren’t always at 1% body fat and that they do enjoy a giant bowl of pasta! The coolest thing I took away from being with these ladies was their sense of community and encouragement amongst competitors. Most of these women know each other, share trainers and are true friends, beyond the stage!

Of course, in the pages of the magazine, only a few photos make-the-cut to get published, so I wanted to share more of the story of being a female body builder! Enjoy!

The images have been released for the shoot I did for Target RED Magazine, which is Target’s internal editorial. This issue featured real-life Target team members showing off Jason Wu’s super-popular line! I was incredible grateful to be a part of this shoot, which was my first time collaborating with the people over at Little & Co. and Viet Do, who is a great designer and freelance art director. As always, a project like this doesn’t come together without a small army of people, so I would love to give credit to our entire team:

CREATIVE TEAM//

Photographer: Eliesa Johnson

Producer: Conor Lawrence

Design, Processing & Layout: Little & Co.

First Assistant: Bryce Bordenkecher

Second Assistant: Sara Montour

Digital Tech: Liz Hardt

Laydown Photographer: Larry Callahan

Laydown Digital Tech: Josh Syx

Laydown Stylist: Lynn Ostrowski

Stylist: Erick DeLeon

Hair & Makeup: Amber Brenke