Book - Olympians - Jeremy McCormack

Books & Projects

Olympians

Olympians began as a creative and cultural mission: to celebrate athleticism, excellence, and national pride through fine art photography—and to elevate the national profile of 30 of Canada’s most accomplished Olympic athletes. Inspired by the long-standing tradition of sport as art, the project draws from the visual legacy of works like Olympia—reimagining the athletic body as a timeless symbol of human potential, discipline, and grace.

To bring this vision to life at scale, the project was commissioned as the cultural centrepiece of a landmark Toronto development designed by Daniel Libeskind—transforming a real estate campaign into a platform for national tribute. Shot across North America over two years, the resulting images form a bold Sport-Art portrait series, culminating in a limited-edition fine art book and a large-scale public exhibition.

More than a celebration of achievement, Olympians honours the individuals who embody the spirit of striving—not only on the world stage, but in the hearts of those they inspire.

Jeremy McCormack conceived and created Olympians, raising financing and producing all aspects of the project. He photographed and curated the series over a two-year, cross-country journey, capturing athletes in both portrait and action. To bring the work to print, he partnered with Bruce Mau Design, who structured and designed a 160-page fine art book featuring over 140 colour and black-and-white photographs. The book was sequenced visually—pairing images across sports based on form, motion, and tone—giving each athlete equal presence and avoiding hierarchy.

The book’s physical form also carries a quiet symbolism. Housed in bold red slipcases flanking a central white volume, the design echoes the colours and proportions of the Canadian flag—red on either side of white—creating a subtle tribute to national identity. The quality of the finished work led Bruce Mau Design to submit the book for design awards, recognising both its visual impact and cultural significance.

Creative direction was led by Emile Molin (now Senior Design Manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) with design by Alex Viault. The book was printed by Flash Reproductions in Toronto, Canada.

The Sound

A Year of Light over Øresund

The Sound is a fine art photo series capturing a year of light, weather, and emotional transformation across the Øresund strait—where the sea meets the sky, the rising sun, and, on clear mornings, where Denmark meets Sweden.

This series draws on two key artistic lineages to explore the emotional and perceptual experience of landscape over time. Inspired by Paul Cézanne’s repeated studies of a hillside in Provence, this body of work returns, again and again, to a single portion of nature: the same stretch of ocean and sky, viewed from the same vantage point. Like Cézanne, I sought variation not through location, but through the shifting conditions of time, season, and light—letting nature itself transform the frame.

The work is also shaped by Gerhard Richter’s waterscapes, and his blurring of painting and photography. Here, I reverse his approach—photographing nature with the emotional intentionality of painting. The goal was not simply to document, but to engage with the unseen energies at play: the light that touches us, the waves that pull us, the sense that everything in nature—and in us—is moving, vibrating, connected.

What begins as repetition becomes revelation. Each image is not merely a record of surface conditions, but a reflection of energy and feeling—the shifting sky, rising wind, and swelling tide revealing and resonating with something equally dynamic within. Often, it was the storm—the charged air, the darkened sea, the moment just before the light returned—that held the most visceral emotion. Beauty isn’t only found in light and stillness, but also in turbulence, force, and awe. In these darker moments, there is meaning that is distinct but inseparable from the serene—a reminder that the same currents moving through the world also move through us.

Each image is titled by the time it was captured—anchoring it in a specific moment, while the atmosphere gestures toward the timeless. The Sound becomes not only a study of place, but a meditation on presence, perception, and the invisible forces that shape our inner and outer landscapes.