"I Used to Believe": Portraits of runners who have not yet known defeat

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we are publishing a David Elliott project, which shoots young runners, still confident that their possibilities are endless.

To fully unlock the potential, runners have to deny the limits of their capabilities - and this is exactly the moment I tried to catch on camera. These people are at an age when they still cannot see the upper bound. They are eager for change, these changes for them are the promise of a bright future of higher achievements. They believe that they can be anyone.

I wanted to capture the moment when a person realizes that he will not become a new Larry Bird or a new Michael Jackson, or any hero of his childhood. I wanted to ask the question: "How many times do you have to screw up in the lower leagues, before you stop believing that you can succeed in the higher ones?" I wanted to gradually ask: "How much do you really love what you do? Is it enough of your enthusiasm to keep doing it even after you realize that you will never be on par with the great ones?" "What do you do when you fail?" "What is defeat?"

There is something inspiring about their sense of purpose. They have everything for which we adore youth. Hope, determination, pride, willingness to fight. Who knows, perhaps one of these children will be the first person to set foot on Mars. Most likely, they will become bankers, teachers, project managers, designers, watchmen. Or sit on the crack. What we see is their struggle to be exactly what they want. And the fact that they subject themselves to this ordeal evokes respect. I remember myself at their age - how naive and proud I was then, how hard I tried to prove myself.