Mike Powell has been living and breathing photography for 25 years. He got his start in the challenging world of sports photography at just 17, where you often have only natural light, a sharp eye, and a split second to get the shot.
Covering all kinds of world-class athletes competing in world-class events, including the Super Bowl, the Summer and Winter Olympics, the World Cup, and the Tour de France – many of them multiple times – Mike honed an uncanny ability to capture the elegance, emotion, and art of the human body in motion.
Over the years Mike has extended his reach by turning his lens on dancers, models, children, and animals while utilizing cutting-edge lighting techniques to create ever more exceptional images.
Whether capturing the simple beauty of a woman’s long hair blowing in the wind as she drives a convertible or the intense power of an elite dancer flying through the deluge of a waterfall, Mike has established himself as one of the premiere photographers of motion.
His work has been prominently featured in magazines in the U.S. and Europe including Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, ESPN Magazine, Stern, and L’Equipe, and he has won numerous awards including the POY – U of M Pictures of the Year, the International Olympic Committee’s Best in Pictures, and the Sasakawa Foundation Award.
A British ex-pat, Mike is as comfortable scaling a mountain in Alaska to pursue his art as he is directing models in studio in Los Angeles, the city he now calls home. Please explore the galleries included on these pages to get a first-hand look at the world as seen through the eyes of Mike Powell.