Become a Benefactor of The Dream Project
We all know that creating ambitious work can be time consuming, challenging, and require significant resources. With The Dream Project, all of these things are true.
The target is to visit 12-15 countries and spend 2-3 weeks in each focusing on the lives, preparations, environments, and experiences of one athlete per country as they all pursue The Olympic Dream™, a unifying target that crosses political, religious, and geographical boundaries.
In order to capture the wide range of experiences that are out there, many of the places I’m most interested in have particular challenges in gaining access, specifically for a citizen of the United States as I am.
My dream for The Dream Project is to peak behind the curtains of some places that don’t often get viewed, like Iran, which consistently has one of the top three men’s programs in the world in both freestyle and Greco-Roman, and North Korea, which, perhaps surprisingly, has an excellent women’s program in addition to successful men’s programs.
Cuba. Ukraine. Russia. All have long, storied histories in the various wrestling disciplines and currently are or have been difficult for Americans to enter.
Others, such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Japan, and more, will round out the journey, providing deeper insight into how wrestling works in different places, how culture and economic resources influence the operation of their sports and the administration of their programs, and how other factors expand or limit their opportunities.
Along the way, I’m going to pursue newspaper and magazine publications around the world. Each individual story will lend itself to local, national, and international coverage. The compilation and final capstone for the project will be a high-level photo book.
The effort will be great. I’m hoping the resulting work will be enlightening and moving and deliver a groundbreaking collection of stories.
And I’m going to need help. A lot of it.
In some countries I will need to hire local fixers, drivers, and translators. There will be equipment costs, travel expenses, and insurance requirements. For the book, I’ll need to work with a designer and an editor. In total, the budget projects to approximately $300,000.
I certainly can’t do it alone.
If you’re interested in supporting this project, I would be enormously grateful. There are several ways to do so.
The first way is free!
You can also:
To kick it up a notch:
Becoming a paying subscriber of The JHoch Journal
Hire me to photograph:
Performances & Productions
Wrestling tournaments
Donate up to $1,000 via:
Zelle - Use justin@jhoch.com as the recipient
Explore more significant contribution options above $1,000 by reaching out directly. I would love to discuss your interest in supporting this project and ways we can make that work.
Contact me at justin@jhoch.com to discuss further.
Thank you!
