Nandu News reporter Wang Yayun on May 29, the day before the start of the French Open, the first domestic photographic exhibition with the theme of the king of clay and Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal will open on the 5th floor of the Westin Guangzhou Canton Fair Hotel on the Golden Slam indoor clay tennis court, and there will also be many Nadal fans on the same day to participate in the "Come on, Nadal" salon activity, becoming a big party for "bean fans".
And all the works exhibited in this photo exhibition are from li jianyi, a famous domestic tennis photographer and known as the "net red bubble teacher" by fans, as the first photographer in China in the past ten years to collect four grand slams in the same year, run through 14 grand slam events and dozens of international competitions in seven years, Li Jianyi carefully selected more than 100 pictures of Nadal that he personally took for this film festival, in addition to the historical moments such as the French Open championship, including many rarely seen aspects of Nadal inside and outside the field. The reason why he will specifically choose to hold a film festival for the king of clay before the start of this year's French Open, Li Jianyi said that this is actually a dream that he has long wanted to realize as a "bean powder", and he hopes to join all Nadal fans in this way to bless the idol to impact the 14th French Open crown and his personal 21st Grand Slam champion.
For tennis shoots, he is not at home for more than 200 days a year
Speaking of photographer Li Jianyi, everyone likes to call his online name "Bubble Teacher", and is well known for his professionalism and dedication in the tennis media circle. As the chief photographer of the all-tennis APP, Li Jianyi's works are not only hung in almost all large tennis courts in Guangdong, but many businesses also like to use his photos as a display, including the photos used by Chinese tennis superstar Li Na at the birthday party, which are also from Li Jianyi's hand. But in fact, this tennis photographer has not been in the industry for a long time, since he began to do tennis photography in 2013, it has only been eight years, but he has realized the ultimate dream of all tennis journalists in the first three years - to gather all four Grand Slams of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, and to shoot 14 Grand Slam tournaments in seven years, so the driving force of such fanaticism comes from his love for tennis and a small "selfishness".
"My original intention as a photojournalist was to get closer to the tennis superstars," he said, "and I think photojournalists can see the stars at closest distance through the lens, and they can also record a lot of historical moments, which is very interesting." With curiosity and the idea of "chasing stars", Li Jianyi began his tennis photography career, of which the most legendary experience in the tennis photography circle is in 2016, he ran through the four Grand Slams in one go, and is the first domestic photographer to achieve this feat in nearly a decade. "I was probably away from home for more than 200 days that year, and I was on the road shooting all kinds of tennis matches." He recalled, "And every Grand Slam is three weeks, starting with qualifiers, plus some early warm-up matches, and probably more than 100 days abroad." Coupled with the domestic Chinese net, the Wu net, the Shanghai Masters, the Guangdong net and other large and small professional competitions, that year was almost all year round in the shooting, now think about it is really crazy. ”
After personally experiencing the four Grand Slams, Li Jianyi also has a deeper understanding of each event. "The Australian Open is very hot, melbourne local temperature can reach more than 40 degrees, so it is easy to be infected by enthusiasm in that atmosphere; Wimbledon is definitely a pilgrimage site that every tennis fan yearns for, green grass with white clothes and white pants, very historical; as for the US Open, it is very much like a big party, New York fans are very good at playing, all kinds of funny dresses, and from time to time you can see some entertainers come to see the ball, it is very partying." However, he bluntly said that his favorite Grand Slam tournament is the French Open, in addition to the red clay there is easy to shoot a blockbuster feeling, but also because it is the stage that belongs to the star Nadal he admires the most.
From "confessing" Nadal to winning the affirmation of idols at work
Li Jianyi and Nadal's fate began with the 2014 Shanghai Masters, before which he actually liked Federer, Nadal and other stars, but he had not seen Nadal himself, and liked the Spaniard more because of his superb skills and indomitable spirit on the field. And that time because a commercial event invited him to Nadal's hotel room to take a recent photo, Li Jianyi got the opportunity to get close to the king of the red earth, in order not to live up to this rare meeting, Li Jianyi specially prepared a "confession", before the official photo work, he boldly went forward and said that paragraph to Nadal himself.
"It's actually the words that fans send blessings to idols, and I tell him that it's his presence that motivates me to do this job, and I hope he can stay healthy all the time." Recalling the scene at that time, Li Jianyi was most impressed by a sentence he said in English, "I said to him, 'you made impossible be possible', that is, you made a lot of impossible things possible, which is really my heartfelt evaluation of him." 」 After hearing this "confession", Nadal also acted very moved, "He thanked me and took a picture with me very warmly, and I could feel that he was really an idol who was particularly friendly to fans." Later, I often recognized me and sometimes came over to pat me on the shoulder, and I also showed him my pictures of him, including his uncle Tony, who would be happy to see my work, they were all very approachable people. ”
In fact, in addition to the unyielding competitive performance on the pitch, the other side of Nadal that impressed Li Jianyi the most was his humility and kindness off the field, in his view, this almost greatest athlete in the history of sports, privately has no high star shelf. "I remember one year at the French Open, after Nadal won the title, the organizers arranged for him to go on a cruise ship on the Seine To take a picture of the toast, and I went to shoot with many photographers from all over the world, and everyone was looking for an angle card to shoot him holding a cup, and suddenly he jumped from the deck to the middle of us and offered to take a picture with all the photographers." Li Jianyi has photographed many celebrities and celebrities, or the first time he met a star who took the initiative to take a photo with a photojournalist, which also made him feel very happy, thinking that his work was fully respected and recognized, "That photo was later put on his social media by Nadal po, and some friends saw it and sent it to me, saying that seeing you and Nadal took a photo, which is really a rare experience." ”
Now that the clay season has begun, Li Jianyi also knows that this year's French Open is of particular significance to Nadal - if he can defend his title again, then in addition to winning the record 14th Musketeers Cup, Nadal will also surpass Federer's 20 crowns in the number of Grand Slam singles titles, becoming the most grand slam male player in history, and this is also the best chance for Nadal to reach the first person in the tennis world who is about to turn 35. Therefore, Li Jianyi also deliberately picked the day before the start of this year's French Open, on May 29, held a photo exhibition and fan salon activity with the theme of "Come on, Nadal" on the golden slam clay field on the fifth floor of the Westin Hotel in Guangzhou, hoping to send good wishes to idols thousands of miles away in this way.
It is worth mentioning that this is also Li Jianyi's 9th personal tennis photography exhibition, he has previously had similar exhibitions in Hong Kong, Melbourne, Suzhou and Dongguan, but it is the first time to hold an exhibition for a single player, which Li Jianyi is also very much looking forward to. "Thank you to the Southern Metropolis Daily for joining me in this exhibition and paying tribute to Nadal," he said, "and I hope that his sportsmanship will infect all of our fans, in fact, no matter what the best outcome of the game, I believe we will all still love Nadal, he is still the greatest athlete of this era." ”