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With the rising popularity of esports comes a new kind of athlete, one who often spends many hours sitting in front of a screen performing repetitive button smashing or sudden hand movements that require sharp reflexes and quick hand-eye coordination. The problem is that while esports and professional esports players are gaining traction in the mainstream, their ailments are often overlooked, leading to serious physical injuries and usually a swift retirement.
Edgar Artiga, the DC-based photographer, created colorful portraits of Lindsey Miglore for WIRED Magazine, showcasing a licensed physician who has dedicated her practice to the esports industry. Lindsey, also known as “The Gamer Doc,” specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation and has been gaming since she was seven years old.
Lindsey is an osteopath by trade and an e-gamer by passion. She has brought the two together now and has become the doctor esports players turn to.
Edgar was contacted by Dalia Nassimi, director of photography for Wired Magazine UK after she found him on Wonderful Machine’s Find Photographers page. She was interested in having Edgar shoot Lindsey Migliore for an upcoming story and thought he’d be a great fit after she saw his bold, colorful approach to portrait photography.
This was my first time working with Wired. Dalia said some of the sports images from my website jumped out at her as strong images with punchy colors, great textures, and compositions.
The portraits were shot against a pink wall at Game Gym Rockville, a gaming center Lindsey’s friend owned. She is shown in her scrubs and staged with a stethoscope and gaming tools like a keyboard and controller. The props used serve to communicate her story in a simple but compelling way visually.
The gym was closing down in a few days, so it was a bit cluttered but had cool pink walls. We tried to incorporate a desk, monitor, computer, but it got too busy, so we decided to keep it simple and focus on Lindsey with one or two props.
While the pink walls served as a colorful backdrop for some lovely straightforward portraits, the more compelling images from this shoot resulted from Edgar’s willingness to try something new. After successfully capturing a few photographs he was happy with, he decided to use color gels.
When I first talked to the Magazine, I thought this lighting would be perfect for this shoot, but I didn’t pitch it because I hadn’t thoroughly tested it. After sending Dalia the images, she responded that the gels were perfect!
Edgar took a chance by trying a new lighting setup, and it paid off as the final image selected to be published in the WIRED Magazine story was one of the images that resulted from using the gels. These images are bold, visually exciting, and create a glowing kaleidoscopic lighting effect over the shadows in the photos that are somewhat reminiscent of the vibrant and colorful worlds that gamers inhabit in their virtual realities. Several of the images from this shoot have also since been published on Lindsey’s website and across various publications profiling The Gamer Doc.
Photographer: Edgar Artiga
Assistant: Matt DeBruycker
Director of Photography, WIRED: Dalia Nassimi
Location: Game Gym Rockville