Jeff Sheng started playing tennis at age 6, continued through high school, then hung up his racquet before attending Harvard University in the late 1990s.
Pictured: Jamie, one of the student-athlete subjects; Jeff Sheng and Brandon Watson.
Before his first class at Harvard, Sheng took a community college course in photograph. 'It was a way to do something completely different,' said Sheng, now 27 and living in Los Angeles.
Sheng's fascination with photography morphed and, ultimately, he meshed it with his sporting past.
'I just fell in love with photography; I saw it as a way to really touch people in a different way from my friends who would be lawyers or businessmen. I just thought there was a way to make a difference, using film and photography,' Sheng said.
In late 2003, a year after graduating from Harvard, Sheng started photographing openly gay and lesbian high school and college athletes. He emailed friends, roommates, associates and even friends-of-friends to see if they knew anyone who identified as an athlete and was openly gay or lesbian. 'It started slowly,' recalls Sheng, who is gay.
'The climate [ today ] is much different from what it was five years ago. Back then, there were very few high school and college athletes who were out and open.'
In his first year, he photographed about 12 athletes, finding some via Google searches.
'It was a huge trust thing between me and these student-athletes,' Sheng said. 'My initial goal was 30 athletes; I thought getting 30 athletes [ photographed ] would be a huge success.'
In 2004, about a year into the project, 'the homophobic climate, so to speak, seemed to settle over America,' he said.
And while he slowed down his athletic search in 2004 and 2005, many athletes found him and his project via the Internet. And they approached him about being photographed.
'It was strange: they were contacting me and that really motivated me on this project,' he said.
Sheng has now photographed about 60 openly gay and lesbian athletes. His goal is 100—so he can showcase the images in a book that he hopes to release in 2009.
Sheng has, in the meantime, featured his images across the United States on his Fearless Campus Tour, which started a couple years ago at the University of Florida; his pictures were seen in a campus hallway by thousands.
'I was terrified that people would vandalize the photos, but that never happened, and the photos were out [ in the public access areas ] 24 hours a day. In fact, when they were first put on display, I gave the university a second copy of all pictures, just in case. But thankfully those [ extra ] photos were never needed.'
Sheng's Fearless Campus Tour—where schools can display the photos in a highly-trafficked area on campus, such as a gymnasium, student-center or Starbucks—has graced the walls over more than 25 campuses.
Sheng photographed 20 student-athletes in 2007; he already has snapped pictures of 10 more this year.
'It's challenging with a full-time teaching job, but the teaching job is enabling me [ financially ] to continue the project,' said Sheng, who teaches photography and Asian American studies at UC-Santa Barbara.
The average photo shoot costs $850 and Sheng is self-funding the entire project so far. To date, he said he's spent $20,000 to $30,000 of his own money for the project.
'As a high school senior, I started to deal with my sexuality a little more. That's why the project is very personal,' Sheng said. 'My [ high school ] experience on the tennis team was not that great in terms of getting along with my teammates. Sure, we got along, but I always kept [ my sexuality ] hidden and they were incredibly homophobic.
'I remember, as a freshman, a senior on the team came out, and his experience was so bad that he quit the team.'
Sheng came out near the end of his freshman year in college. His first boyfriend was on the water-polo team and was closeted. After six months, they broke up 'because of the stress,' Sheng said.
The water-polo player came out his junior year in 2001, Sheng said.
Sheng earned a degree in filmmaking and photography at Harvard, and his undergraduate thesis was about another gay relationship he had in college. He ultimately graduated with highest honors.
'I want to do this project because I think it is really meaningful socially,' said Sheng, who photographs all of the athletes immediately after an intense workout because, 'I want to hit the intersection of sexuality and athleticism. Right after a workout, I really feel like you can identify with the person.'
Sheng does not reject anyone who wants to be photographed. 'The project is about inclusion,' he said. 'I really want people to feel like, when they look at the athletes photographed, that they see people who they know, people who they can identify with. That's very important to me. And that's why I want to include all ethnicities, all body types.'
Sheng said the Fearless Campus Tour has, surprisingly, been better received within the straight world than the gay community.
'It's odd: When straight people see the project, they are absolutely fascinated by it. Unfortunately, the only criticism I have gotten is from a small segment of the gay population, for whatever reasons. That's frustrating,' he said.
Sheng will be in China this summer for the Summer Olympics, where he will be blogging alongside openly gay former National Basketball Association ( NBA ) player John Amaechi.
Sheng, who speaks Chinese, will, of course, have a camera or two with him for the three-week adventure.
'I'm going to write about human rights, LGBT issues, etc.,' Sheng said. 'It will be a lot of fun; I'm really looking forward to it.'
Sheng first met Amaechi at Williams College, where Sheng had a photography exhibition and Amaechi was the keynote speaker at a forum. The two have since become such good friends that Amaechi introduced Sheng to the man who eventually became his boyfriend—Brandon Watson, 25.
'John and I have become really good friends, particularly because we're both working toward the same thing: equality in athletics,' Sheng said. 'I'm doing it through my photography; he's doing it with his speaking.'