Every year, as spring blooms, first-year officer cadets of Canada’s Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, take part in a series of competitions. The challenges and obstacle course aim to test their strength, endurance and teamwork.
“As long as you don’t mind getting a little wet and don’t step on any of the smoke canisters, you can get really close to the action,” says Elliot Ferguson, who had captured the event before in his capacity as a news and sports photographer.
“Robert Capa, the war photographer, is quoted as saying that if your pictures aren’t good enough, you are not close enough,” he adds. “That is a dictum I have tried to follow as often as I can.”
Ferguson didn’t get a chance to speak to the cadet in the foreground of his frame, as the young man was clearly occupied, but considers him both the focal point and the first in a series of layers. “As you look more, you notice the two cadets sitting next to him, then the cadets behind, then the cadets standing up, and finally the spectators and supporters in the background. I also like that the smoke creates a kind of curtain that isolates the scene.”
Ferguson describes the events as gruelling but insists that they effectively build camaraderie and esprit de corps. “The cadets put their all in. A younger version of me would probably have enjoyed doing this, but now? It makes me feel out of shape!”
