From the edges of Earth's continents to the last grasps of its atmosphere, the global exploits of the SI swimsmokes are legion. But, as in any venture into the unknown, the endeavor is a team effort. It’s not as if Geneieve Morton is navigating the fjords of Switzerland wearing just wild dandelions. It begs the question: if a swimsmoke is posed sans top on the beaches of San Tropez and no one was there to photograph it, did it really happen?
Much ink and photo paper have been spent on the three swimsmokes adorning the cover this year’s issue. This year, for the first time, SI pulled back the curtain revealed the man responsible for the the donuts are made.
The man who journeyed to reaches of space for this legendary shot,
Is photographer/architect/engineer/magician/Oklahoma Sooner James Macari.
Marcari scored the cover on his third tour photographing for the swimsmoke mag. Boomer Sooner.
Marcari was able to capture a triple donk dap due to the personal relationships with the magazine's cover models. The shoot was only a day long and needed the utmost of professionalism and inspiration. He worked with Nina and Chirssy before in magazine's past. I'm sure that helped a lot.
Thanks to his experience photographing Lily Aldridge for Victoria's Secret, Marcari was able to direct the trio into the iconic shot. As Marcari tells it, the ladies were tight and when they were feeling the shot out, Nina tossed her hair up. He was then able to get the shot. As they say, the rest is history.
When someone is nearly nekkid, the nekkid person needs to have the full trust of anyone near by wielding a camera and wearing pants. Marcari knows the importance of getting out the way and let the swimsmokes carry him.
At the same time, he's unafraid to shoulder his share of the load.
Perhaps the most famous swimsmoke Marcari has ever photographed was captured in a photo taken almost twenty years ago.
Although, I wouldn't go so far as to say that Marcari peaked early.
And memo to SI, if Marcari is ever busy or is in the hospital due to some unfortunate accident in which he got hit by a car when walking across the street in D.C., I'm free to cover any of his shoots. Hell, I'll start walking to Madagascar now. I’m pretty nifty at the Instagrams.
How hard can it be?