Based in Berlin, Germany, Ryu Voelkel is a big-lens, fast-shutter professional sports photographer, who’s on the pitch in many of the top international soccer matches; such as in the European and Champions leagues, including World Cups. Ryu’s images are layered with profound nuances, where he sees the action as they evolve and transfers that vision through his photographic equipment.

I discovered Ryu’s photography back in about 2010 and has since been glued to his work. These days, due to the pandemic, where there has been no work for anyone related to sporting events, he’s offering high-resolution photographs at a discounted rate—basically you give him your price. Then you can transfer the photograph on canvas, for example. His sports and non-sports photography can be viewed on his website or on his Instagram account. Also, commercially, he’s photographed for the likes of Nike and Adidas.

For Canadian residents, BestCanvas.ca has great service, quality and prices on canvas transfers. My previous experiences with them, including my photography clients, have been fantastic. As an side, they are now also doing protective masks using their existing designs or uploading your own art or photography. American residents can visit their alternate .com website.

So, a few weeks ago, I purchased and baptized the photograph shown at the top as, “Defend The Blond Messi“, August 2016, Sevilla vs. FC Barcelona. For me, Ryu’s photograph captured the essence of Messi. Here we have Messi working in his office, dribbling in and out of traffic, then either making the sublime assist scoring pass through defenders, or going to the net and precisely slotting the ball in the only area possible between the post and the keeper’s gloves. Ryu’s photographic execution is a selective focus of Messi, while the other subjects are in an out-of-focus, shallow-depth-of-field bokeh (meaning Japanese for blur)—as if Messi capturing a nano-second mental image of everyone on the pitch, preparing to attack.

Samples of Ryu’s other artistic captures…