Brad Edelman

Photographer Brad Edelman is easy to talk to. In his stucco-walled photography studio, resting his formidable frame in a lush easy chair, Edelman is friendly and articulate. To many people he is perhaps best known as the former New Orleans Saints offensive lineman but it was Edelman's youthful experiences in music and the appreciation of the picturesque that led him to his current passion and career.
     Born in Florida, Edelman was raised from a young age in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. He attended the University of Missouri, majoring in public relations. He admits that he chose the field without any real plan for his life; I really didn't know what I wanted to do. Coursework was slowed by his increasing involvement in football. Though it was unexpected, his obvious talent in sports set him on a path that led, in the 1982 NFL draft, to the New Orleans Saints. His new course was charted but, along the way, in his early 20's, Edelman purchased a Canon SLR camera. The hobby occupied the spare time he had between training and games but the daily rush of a pro-footballer's life compelled him to shelve the camera for the time being. By 1989 injuries had forced Edelman to retire from football. The time had come to consider a new career.
     When I stopped playing football music was where I wanted to go, he said. " I grew up with music, he said". "I was always interested in singing. I've taken drum lessons, guitar lessons, piano..." He was the lead singer of a band as a youth and music held his interest throughout high school. I sang in the concert choir, the jazz ensemble. He dropped his voice and in a mellow baritone he sang, the barbershop quartet. Injuries almost immobilized him in the early 90s but music was on his mind. I would sit there with ice packs on my knees and back and think, "one of these days I'm going to put a band together." The Brad Edelman Band was the result and the group performed for a few years. A highlight of his music career was singing the national anthem for a Saints game at the Superdome. That was a big thrill. Had it been another stadium my knees would have been knocking but at the Superdome it felt like home. Seeing familiar faces on the field and in the stands buoyed his confidence but his career in music slowed to a halt and he found himself at yet another crossroads.
     In 1998 Edelman moved to Los Angeles. It was in California that he revisited his passion for photography."I began experimenting with an old camera that I'd had since the early 80s." Years had passed since he last enjoyed taking pictures and his interest before had been casual but somehow, in California, the time was right. "I was captivated by the natural beauty of the landscapes - West coast sunsets, the character, the textures - I couldn't put the camera down." His renewed interest led him to learn more of the technical and business aspects of taking pictures. Before long he was considering photography for a third career. A long-held fascination had, once again, taken hold.
     As a child, Edelman was often mesmerized by crumbling walls and the odd trick of sunlight. "I was interested in old buildings and rooms with peeling, chipped paint. I used to visit Alton, Illinois where my father grew up. His dad owned a building that had been a five-and-dime  something like that  and it was vacant. I used to climb through this old rustic building in a town with brick streets and I was captivated by the textures. When I played football here in New Orleans we'd be booked (before a game) in the Hilton. Often, when I drove to the Hilton, I would stop in the Warehouse district and just sit in a quiet place looking at maybe a beam of light bouncing off a building or sidewalk, or where the plants were growing through a wall, and I found some peace and inspiration in that. Those feelings were in place when I began taking photos that were full of texture and were abstract." Referring to his years on the field he said, "those feelings must have been with me the whole time."
     Life for Edelman was good in Los Angeles and Venice Beach in particular but New Orleans beckoned him. "I came back for the simple fact that New Orleans is home. In New Orleans is all about the soul; it's raw and it's soulful and that's probably the biggest thing I missed when I did not live here." Today Edelman makes his home in the French Quarter and his studio, an elegant wreck of a room full of sunlight and his beloved rich textures, is close by. His impressive works range from portraiture to abstract art pieces, from commercial commissions to documentary photojournalism but it is his shots of musicians in performance that seem to bring two of his great personal delights together. "That's the great thing about photography and (photographing) musicians; it keeps me around the music. Even though I'm not sitting on a kit I can still be around and appreciate the energy. I'm participating in music in a creative manner, trying to find composition and interesting lighting - a way to present what I'm seeing and feeling."