April 1, 2006

Backstage at the 2006 Arnold Classic

At the beginning of March, I did something rather interesting – I was invited by the well-known Australian video company, GMV (which is run by Wayne, Sean, and Tina Gallasch), to do backstage photography at the 2006 Arnold Classic. Granted, I’ve done plenty of backstage photography over the last half decade or so, but nothing quite like this.

The backstage business I would be doing was to supplement Wayne and Sean Gallasch’s backstage video work, which gets packaged and sold on DVD by, you guessed it, GMV. The best description for what I was doing, then, is guerrilla photography – essentially, an every-man-for-himself action to get the best photos possible in the sub-par environment called "the backstage area."

Admittedly, at first I thought the job was rather odd – jamming your camera into the faces of some of the world’s best-known bodybuilders and clicking away. If I were one of those bodybuilders, I would find it annoying (perhaps some did). But I guess they kind of expect this sort of thing to happen, and I wasn’t alone in my task – there were probably a dozen or so other photographers, including some from Flex, Muscle & Fitness, and MuscleMag, as well as other magazines, doing the exact same thing. In fact, there were about as many photographers as there were competitors.

With so many photographers working in the same space, I ran the risk of having my photos looking exactly the same as everyone else’s. I didn’t want that. As a result, I set myself two goals: 1) I wanted to get the best shots possible, and 2) I wanted to capture some unique images on my camera – things the others weren’t necessarily getting. Both goals proved a challenge, but with a little ingenuity, they could be accomplished

Getting good-quality pictures mostly involved setting up my camera to shoot in low-light conditions and then finding the best vantage point to shoot from. And much to my surprise, some of the competitors were quite happy to help make my job easier. Branch Warren, for example, made a point of pumping up and then posing for many minutes for the numerous photographers there. I suspect Branch did it because he’s the up-and-coming guy on the bodybuilding scene (he placed second at this event), and he knows the value of publicity. As a result, I got a good number of shots of Branch, including the one shown on our cover this month. Furthermore, I can tell you this: If you think Branch Warren looks impressive onstage or in pictures, you have to see this guy in real-life. He’s not very tall, but he’s jam-packed with dense muscles that hang from his frame. What’s more, he’s as hard as a rock. Someone once described Branch Warren as having off-season size combined with in-season conditioning, and that’s exactly right. There are few guys this big and this hard at any show – no doubt why he placed so high.

Toney Freeman didn’t have quite the same luck at this show as Warren – he placed ninth – but he was more than happy to let photographers snap away. Again, I suspect that he, too, knows the value of publicity and creating a positive image.

On the other hand, a couple of the favorites at this show weren’t quite so cooperative – at least not at first. They weren’t hostile, mind you (far from it), but they were somewhat aloof. For example, everyone was looking for Gustavo Badell, the upstart who upset Ronnie Coleman at last year’s Mr. Olympia by beating him in the Challenge Round. I had to search everywhere to find Badell, eventually locating him in a corner near an entrance to the stage. There he was, quietly getting pumped up, keeping his physique covered the entire time so that no one could see him. It was a strategy of his, obviously, because when I arrived there I noticed half a dozen competitors standing around in the vicinity, sneaking sidelong glances at him to catch a glimpse of what he would look like. They were obviously trying to size up how big a challenge he’d be that day.

For most of the time, though, you couldn’t tell what Badell looked like – and Badell obviously liked it that way. However, you can’t get onstage in your track suit, so the big moment finally came. And when it did, Badell didn’t simply disrobe and walk out from his corner – he made an entrance, emerging fully flexed, so that all his competitors could see what they were up against. He was formidable looking but not at his best. Still, he was certainly a threat that day. When he hit the stage, almost all the eyes in the room were pegged to the backstage video monitors to see how he appeared to the judges’ eyes. At this show, though, Badell only managed a disappointing fourth-place finish; however, he did come back two weeks later to win the pro competition in San Francisco and re-solidify his position as one of the top competitors in the world right now. At the Arnold, he was simply "off."

Then there was Dexter Jackson – the guy at this show. Honestly, there was no one trickier to find and photograph than him (or perhaps I just wasn’t looking in the right places). Dexter was last year’s winner and, of course, this year’s favorite as a result. He was holding his cards closer to his chest than Badell, and because he seemed to be hiding, rumors were flying that he was not in shape. When Dexter did finally appear, mind you – minutes before he was called to be on the stage – those rumors were finished. He didn’t emerge from wherever he was as Badell did, but just as many if not more eyes were on him when he finally walked into plain sight. I snapped a shot of him when he arrived at the area just offstage.

Jackson didn’t appear to be in any better shape than he was last year, but he certainly wasn’t in any worse shape. As a result, I could also tell what many competitors around me were thinking: Looks like he’s going to do it again! In fact, looking around the room, there wasn’t anyone who could beat him, at least not that day. Branch Warren, even at his best, can’t match Jackson’s superior shape. On the other hand, the guy who could have beaten him was Victor Martinez – if he had been in top shape. Victor, although good, was certainly not at his best. As a result, he ended up in third place. Martinez has strong potential, but he hasn’t quite put it together yet, which is exactly why Branch Warren was able to finish ahead of him in second place and Dexter wound up winning again simply by being "on."

The only person who might have disagreed with me on who the winner should be was Melvin Anthony. Melvin placed fifth at this show, one spot ahead of Lee Priest, who was simply not in top shape this day and likely knew it. As for Anthony, he knew he came to the Arnold in good shape, and I could tell after the prejudging was over that he thought he was being completely overlooked based on the judges’ callouts.

Melvin obviously put a lot of effort into his preparations for this show, because he was the only one there who I thought really changed from the way he looked last year. His shape was phenomenal, with perhaps the best V-taper of the show (Melvin claims a sub-30" waist, and seeing him right in front of me I’d say he’s not lying). He was also far more defined than he’d ever been before – in the abdominal-and-thigh pose he looked downright shredded – and his back-double-biceps pose was one of the best of the show. However, he was also smaller this time than in the past, and I suspect that hurt his scores. Melvin Anthony has got a great-looking physique but, unfortunately, great-looking physiques don’t always win these days. As a result, he slid down further in the ranks than he wanted to. However, fifth place at the Arnold Classic is quite a feat. Furthermore, he lashed back two weeks later by taking third place at the San Francisco show, looking even more impressive.

So, that’s how the top spots in the Arnold Classic all played out – at least from backstage. It was quite a sight, obviously, and an interesting experience. Now that you’ve read all about it, you can see exactly what I’m talking at www.ThePhotoIssue.com, where I posted some of my photographs. Who knows, maybe they’ll even invite me back next year!

...Doug Schneider, Publisher
das@seriousaboutmuscle.com

Doug Schneider is the publisher and chief photographer for SeriousAboutMuscle.com, BodyBuildingLive.com, and SeriousAboutFitness.com.