Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1345570
M H J O N L I N E . C O M | M A R C H 2 0 2 1 20 With a film school background, Jasper eventually picked up a camera to complement his video work. It struck him that still photography would stand the test of time in capturing hockey rinks. The project got put on hold for a bit when Jasper had to do what he calls "real work." But he eventually picked it back up when that real work wasn't quite as fulfilling as he was hoping for. So he continued to traverse the state, from Grygla to Roseau to Minnesota's Iron Range to 3M at Mariucci Arena, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. No two arenas he stopped at were the same, especially some of the older arenas he set foot in. One thing they did all have in common, however, was that each community that housed those arenas took tremendous pride in them. And they all were thrilled to be fea- tured in Jasper's book. "I've gotten a lot of letters from people say- ing how meaningful it was to see their own rink and they talk about their old memories. That's really cool," Jasper said. "There's 72 rinks in the book, so clearly I had to leave some out. People whose rinks didn't make the book, they like to let you know that their rink didn't make the book, either." Jasper initially figured there were between 20-30 arenas in Minnesota that were worthy of this special type of photo shoot. It wasn't until he trekked across each region of the state that he realized just how vast the spectrum of rinks in Minnesota truly is. Because that number of rinks kept growing, Jasper thought displaying the pho- tos digitally would be the way the project turned out. In the end, though, he chose to present the pictures in a high-end book. At each rink, Jasper tried to at least get the same style of what he calls an on-the-nose shot—taken at ice level from the far end looking down the length of the ice. Equipped with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, Jasper brought a trio of different lenses to give him options. In some arenas, if time allowed, he also used a video camera to get some b-roll footage. The process of getting access to each of the rinks he photographs varied based on where he went. Some towns and rink man- agers let Jasper spend as much time as he needs on the ice, with some even joking that he can just lock the arena up when he leaves. Occasionally, he was on a tighter time constraint that means pre-planning for the shots he wants is crucial. There are some are- nas that he never was able to shoot because nobody picked up the phone. "You wouldn't think it would be that hard to set up times to shoot hockey rinks when they're empty because it's usually like 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.; it's usually wide open," Jasper said. "But there are certain places that didn't make the book where I called 12 times, nobody ever got back to me, and eventually that rink was torn down." Jasper is constantly scoping the arenas out to find characteristics that make them unique, whether that's obstruct- ed-view seats, details in the roof or anything else that makes that particular arena stand out. He was drawn to the scoreboard of the rink in East Grand Forks, for example, that hung down really low to partially block some views. The whole time he's snapping the cam- era's shutter, Jasper feels some pressure. He's well aware of what these rinks mean not just to the players past and present who have skated on the ice, but the communities R I N K R A T You can purchase "Home Ice" by Matt Jasper on Amazon and at homeice.mn. 3