Mud, Sweat & Tears features a mix of black-and-white and colour shots – swarms of bare legs, mud between toes, crying, exhaustion and embraces. The photos are intimate and alive, helped by film grain and contact sheets that give the vibe of a photographer’s journal. But most of all, it’s the colours of all of the bare skin in the zine that makes you feel the heavy pulse and blood running. These are people who find joy in pushing the body to the limits – and this zine shows you the bodies that can operate at such a high athletic level. Running, at this stage, is a “team sport disguised as an individual one”, says Ben. And those individual traits shine in the glitter face paint and sheer determination to rise above the pack.
It’s a bit of a throwback to Ben’s music documentary days as well as his current portrait photography which features celebrities such as Finn Wolfhard, rapper YG, indie rock legend J. Mascis and comedian Bowen Yang. In Mud, Sweat & Tears, he’s tasked with finding the larger personalities in a crowd of fresh faces. It’s perhaps why Ben’s work can laser focus on moments of drama, emotion and action so well.