Rob Schanz is creating novelty in a world with ever-growing visual noise.
Morristown, New Jersey. Middle schooler Rob Schanz’s friends are skateboarding, but he’s standing on the sidelines — filming them with a Sony Handycam.
It wasn’t until a college photojournalism class that Schanz realized photography and videography could be a full-time profession. “I ended up interning and taking photographs for a local newspaper,” he says. “I think that kind of opened my mind to the fact that photography could be done as an actual paying job.”
After graduating, Schanz moved from Florida to San Francisco, where he lived in an old Victorian home that had been split into eight apartments. Many of the residents owned small businesses, and Schanz began capturing imagery and videography for them when he wasn’t working odd jobs to pay the rent. His side gig grew and grew, and before he knew it, it became a career.
“I was doing photo and video work for an orchestra that would go on tour every other month. Eventually, my boss was just like, ‘Dude, you're 25 and someone's trying to pay you to travel the world.’ He gave me the kick that started that whole thing for me,” says Schanz.
When he wasn’t photographing the orchestra or working as a photo assistant, Schanz cycled the hills of San Francisco and surfed along the coast. “The opportunity to have a freelance schedule, to plan my life around things I wanted to do instead of planning my life around work, gave me the ability to get out more, which definitely influenced my work,” he says.
Schanz found that the best inspiration didn’t come from studying classic photographers, but instead from observing what interested him: movement in all its various forms.
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That obsession only continued when Schanz started dating his now-wife Amy, a semi-professional, elite runner. She kick-started his love of running — and running photography — that still stands today. “I was surrounded by so much talent on her team. I was going to all these races and just kind of tagging along,” says Schanz. “Eventually, I was like, I should just start photographing this, like, pitching it to magazines and other brands and just seeing what happens.”
At the time, Amy’s team was sponsored by a notable athleticwear company that ended up booking Schanz for a photography job. “I just got together with some of the people on the team and did a photo shoot. That gets in front of certain people in the industry, and they want something similar,” he says.
Working closely with Amy’s team didn’t just put Schanz’s art in front of major brands; it helped him fine-tune his own approach to photography, one that’s akin to method acting. With each assignment, Schanz tries to learn the sport and lingo before diving in. That way, when it comes time to work with his subjects, he can authentically talk the talk — or, in many cases, run the run.
Like many photographers, Schanz attracts clients by pitching constantly. “Even if the project doesn't end up happening or the client doesn't run with that idea, it's a better opening for a conversation,” he says. This strategy, along with his portfolio, has opened the door for him to work with brands such as The North Face, ASICS, Rabbit, Old Navy, Tracksmith, SOAR, and Rivian.
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Yet another of Schanz’s guiding principles is to create novelty in a world with ever-growing visual noise. Instead of looking to contemporary sports photographers for inspiration, he often draws from other photography styles or completely different forms of media. “If I’m shooting a running shoe. I don't really want to look at other running shoe campaigns beforehand. Why would I do that? That [idea] has already been done,” he says. “I want to look at photos from fashion photography, or another sport, or nature.”
Schanz explains that sports photography often employs motion blur to suggest movement, but he pushes himself to explore fresh ways to capture someone riding a bike or skiing a mountain, for example. Something as simple as tweaking the lighting or zeroing in on a facial expression can imply motion.
And with every new project, he continues to ask himself: What’s next?
“People always want to know what camera you're shooting with or how you shot something,” says Schanz. “If you’re trying to do the trendy thing that everyone else is already doing, you're already behind. Try to shut off every conscious inspiration and do what naturally comes to you.”
Photographs by Rob Schanz.