You see, this is no regular street soccer tournament. Instead, the 23 teams – from 19 states in the US + 1 team from Russia – are made up of homeless men and women. With the help of some amazing, terrific mentors, each team member sets 3, 6, 9 and 12-month personal and financial goals for themselves, with the goal of being employed and off the streets, while also being accountable as a member for a soccer team.

It was an honor for me to capture the passion, the team energy, the respect, the pain of losing and the glory of winning, the details, the coaches, the fans – everything that made this event a success for all of the Street Soccer USA teams.

This is my photo essay of the event.

Attendees were encouraged to make banners to support each of the teams.

Teams had a series of warm-up stretches and rituals before they hit the field.

Let the games begin!

GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

Happy fans. Thankful fans.

Thank you Lawrence and the team at Help USA – I truly, truly enjoyed capturing the tournament!!!

Consider it our visual diary of Berlin…….

As I mentioned before, we biked the heck out of Berlin this past summer – but before we start an 11-hour day of biking, breakfast is a MUST.

Juan and I had some croissants and coffee before heading out on day 1. Behind Juan are the bikes we rented from Fahrrad Box Berlin.

That shirt that Juan is wearing, you ask? It was from Behance’s 99% conference in New York City past April. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Later that day we went to see the Berlin Wall and this was probably the most surreal moment I had in Berlin. The sheer fact that we could walk right up to this wall and touch it, knowing the history it has and all the families and lives that were interrupted because of it…..it’s something that I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around…..and there we were…..

Another site we visited were the Brandenburg Gates – we hit these around 7/8pm and the light hitting this monument was truly, truly stunning.

Here’s a little fun with video at the Brandenburg Gates……with Juan crossing the gates a la Lance Armstrong and winning the race

I WIN from Catalina Kulczar-Marin on Vimeo.

Next we hit the Berlin TV Tower and had some fun taking these photos.

The next day, breakfast was yet again, a MUST and this time we biked to the east part of Berlin a different way and came across a little street market……and so we indulged in some waffles, coffee, freshly squeezed right-in-front-of-you orange juice….and Juan also indulged in a German sausage….breakfast of champs!

]]> http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/berlin-my-visual-diary/feed/ 2 http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/berlin-tv-tower/ http://www.catalinaphotography.com/blog/berlin-tv-tower/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:30:46 +0000 catalina http://www.catalinaphotography.com/?p=2410 This was by FAR my most favorite site in Berlin and I couldn’t wait to see it for myself!

It has a very interesting and ironic history…..read on – source: Wikipedia

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR’s strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin’s Reichstag building (when viewed from the front).

And this, in my opinion, is the best part – The Pope’s Revenge.

When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm’s tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. As a jibe against the atheist foundations of the Communist government, and the ongoing suppression of church institutions in East Germany, Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or “Pope’s Revenge”.

(insert shameless plug – you can have your very own, limited-edition print of this image by clicking HERE)

Our original plans were to fly from Paris, where we attended the OFFF conference, to Berlin…….BUT, the folks at Easy Jet decided to make that impossible by checking us in at the airport, and then going on strike and walking off the job. You read that correctly. Juan and I, after going through security around 6:00pm and checking in, sat and waited….and waited….and then our flight was delayed….and an hour later it was CANCELLED, and guess what? There was NOBODY from Easy Jet at the airport to help us. We were left to fend for ourselves and there were some folks on our (cancelled) flight who went through the same thing the day before. Long story short, the wonderful folks at Paris Orly Sud airport took us to a hotel at 3:00am, we slept for about 5 hours and decided to take a train to Berlin instead.

Alas, this is a portrait of one of the ladies who took care of us during our first leg of the train ride to Berlin.

We rented bicycles from Fahrrad Box, and this gentleman helped set us up with our bikes, making sure we had the right frame size and height. There is no better way to explore Berlin than via bicycle, and one of the most incredible things we noticed was that the bicyclist was king. There are special bike paths on the street and when they’re abstent in certain areas, vehicles share the road with no qualms. Pedestrians get out of your way and the roads are easy to navigate at all hours of the day and even late at night.

If you make it to Berlin, we HIGHLY recommend you rent your bicycles from Fahrrad Box!

During our biking tour of Berlin, we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie and noticed there were 2 men and a woman posing for photos (for 1 Euro) with tourists. I went up and started talking to them and made this portrait of the female dressed as a solider.

Shortly after that stop, we happened to come across a photography lab called Das Foto Image Factory. I am currently exploring different mounting options for a collection of images I have and so we started talking to one of the employees there…..and I took his photo as we left.

I have a list of things I want to see/do/visit/photograph while I’m on this earth, some that happen in New York, and ever since I heard of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade a few summers ago, I knew I had to go and see this crazy parade with my own eyes.

Packed to the brim, I rode the Q train down to the second to last stop on the line, the NY Aquarium, and tried to figure out where in this sea of people I could catch a good view of the parade.

The streets and boardwalk were just as packed on this beautiful, sunny and cloudless Saturday as any train platform at 5:00pm on a weekday. PACKED. Like sardines in a can. Like the train I had just taken to Coney Island. Sigh.

Alas, along with several hundred (if not thousands) of people, I made my way to the boardwalk and little by little, made my way to the front row of the parade route. I went alone and I was very lucky to stand next to 2 very funny couples – we all ended up giving names to each of the mermaids that came down the route, including “goth mermaid,” “papa smurf mermaid,” “lazy mermaid,” “pissed off at BP mermaid,” and a slew of other names, each given according to the participant’s costume.

Andy Warhols, complete with cameras and wigs.

In case you’re scratching your head and trying to figure out this image, it’s a man who was wearing a shark in between his legs.

In all this, I had heard of the crazy costumes and seen some photos but I had no idea I would be seeing so many pasties and a few bare breasts here and there.

It just so happened that we were standing next to this metal structure covered in blue, silk-like material – little did we know that this was the platform for some aerial silk performers, so we had not one, but TWO shows we could see from our vantage point, so I was able to catch a few shots of these beautiful, strong women who made dancing in the air look so easy!

A few more shots from the day…..

If you haven’t, then let me tell you I’m a big fan of PSFK and you should be too.

PSFK founder Piers Fawkes recently asked if I could create some abstract imagery for their Future of Retail report. I received descriptions of the 10 future retail trends and it was completely up to me to find and create images to describe ideas like “world as a retail experience” and “every store as a flag ship.”

This is the kind of photography work I sink my teeth into; abstract and open to interpretation by you, the viewer.

You can request your free copy of the Future of Retail Report here and below are some of the images I created for this report.

During a dinner given during Andrea & Brendan’s wedding celebrations, I head the pleasure of meeting one of Andrea’s former co-workers and friends Sylvia, whose friendly, funny vibe I loved right away. During dinner, she started to tell me about an organization she volunteers for called Trekking for Kids. TFK is a non-profit that travels the world once a year, completes hikes to mountains including Cotopaxi (Ecuador), Mt. Kilamanjaro (Tanzania), the Inca Trail (Peru), and completes volunteer work at an orphanage located near the hiking trail of that particular trip.

Last year, TFK went to Ecuador where TFK built a laundry room,  an infirmary and planted a garden for the girls at the Quito orphanage called Casa Hogar Madre Rafaela de la Pasion Veintimilla.

It just so happened that Sylvia was in town for Andrea & Brendan’s wedding and 6 of the girls at the orphanage where TFK volunteered last year in Quito were having their big 15th birthday – called Quinceañera – the Sunday following the wedding. Sylvia was helping the orphanage with a surprise birthday celebration, which included Sylvia bringing the birthday girls beautiful dresses all the way from NYC.

“Would you be interested in taking photos of this special day?” Sylvia asked. I said YES in a heartbeat.

At the orphanage, I felt that the best gift I could give these deserving girls was a portrait in their lovely dresses – a gift they could treasure for the rest of their lives.

I left, filled with joy, ecstatic that I had the opportunity to capture these very special Quinceañeras.

To see my other 2 recent publications of PSFK images, click here.

Hair and wardrobe was done by Norine, and makeup by Regina de Lemos (regina.makeup@gmail.com)

Danica was great to work with; she is such a natural!

In New York City, the 2010 Pillow Fight took place in Union Square and little did I know what I was getting myself into when I decided to take my camera, 2 lenses and a dose of courage to brave the crowds. I arrived shortly before the official 3:00pm kick off and photographed some different participants. If you watch the video at the end of this post (or scroll to 02:33), you can see the Bee Dude (James) photographed in this post. This is his 4th time at the pillow fight, always in bee costume.

The rules are simple. Take off your glasses and only hit those around you who have a pillow in hand (basically, don’t whack the photographers). Costumes are encouraged and feather-pillows are discouraged (too messy a clean up).

The media was everywhere, meaning mostly on the edge of the fight (smart). I, on the other hand, was in the thick of it when the fight began (crazy).

I lasted about 4 minutes in the middle of the fight and then headed to Filene’s Basement to get a good bird’s eye view of the fight. I am not sure exactly how many people participated this year, but it seemed that there were hundreds, if not thousands taking part.

Happy with my far-away-from-the-crazy-pillow-fighting-crowd-and-my-blood-pressure-back-to-normal, I ventured back to get some better close up shots on the edge of the fight.

All in all, I was happy to have documented this event and might consider participating next year for a little bit and on the edges of the fight – not in the middle of it.

Heck, I might just don a crazy outfit too.

Here’s the a video that the Travel Channel did on the 2009 NYC Pillow Fight: