Koan Collective

Kōan is the collaboration of four young photojournalists united to further their goals of providing engaging visual stories around the world, amidst the changing industry landscape.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - Last week I spent some time in Iraan, Texas working on this piece for the NYT.⠀ .⠀ After winning their state quarterfinal football game a few weeks ago, the bus carrying the schools cheerleaders was hit by an eighteen-wheeler leaving several of the girls in the hospital and killing the booster club president. The outpouring of support they received from their town of 1,229 and other small towns around Texas was truly astonishing.⠀ .⠀ The team made it to the state title game and the town shut down so everyone could make the 6 hour trek to the Dallas Cowboys stadium. One of the cheerleaders couldn't sit in a bus for 6 hours with her injuries so a few folks from an oil company in Houston sent a private plane to pick her and her family up and fly them to the game.⠀ .⠀ Unfortunately the team came up short in the championship game but as the principal put it, “football was huge, but humanity was bigger.”⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #dtxstreet #captureDFW #txig #visittexas #igtexas #snaptexas #instadfw #Dallas #Texas #football #Iraan

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Photo by @CooperNeill - a visitor checks out the @Kaws art exhibit at The Modern in Fort Worth, Tx.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - Irish fans take to the street after Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to become the first fighter in the UFC history to hold two championship belts at the same time.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - a woman grooms her goat at the State Fair of Texas before the official goat show.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - 5th graders work on their ballroom dancing skills in the gym at their elementary school outside of Dallas, Tx.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - visitors pose for photos at the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York City

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Photo by @CooperNeill - Football is king in Texas. Growing up in a small Texas town, I remember things shutting down on Friday nights so everyone could go to the high school football game. Now big corporations like Under Armour, Nike, Ford and Coca-Cola are starting to take notice by sponsoring stadiums and outfitting teams with free gear to get more eyes on their products. It's crazy how high school football has become such big business and I think it'll be a few years before we can say if it's a good practice for the school districts or not. Shot for The Wall Street Journal.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - This is Ahmed - aka The Clock Kid. A year ago his face was on the cover of newspapers and magazines around the world after he was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school to show his teacher - who then thought the clock was a bomb and called the cops. He was a normal 14-year-old who liked to tinker with electronics and his go-kart until he was thrust into the national spotlight in a debate on how Muslims are viewed in America. With the attention came the good and the bad. Celebrities followed him on Twitter, President Obama invited him to the White House and people from around the world were offering words of encouragement while others were threatening his life and bullying him online. So his parents moved with him and his siblings to Qatar to escape the negativity and continue his education. Now back in Texas for the summer, he's still a normal kid wants to fix up his old go-kart and hang out with his friends.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - #tbt to that time I took a helicopter ride with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to take a look at his new $1,500,000,000 headquarters north of Dallas and he got a little frustrated when the windows fogged up and he couldn't look down on his newest masterpiece.

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Photo by @CooperNeill - Magnus Aherns, 8, picks a flower to drop into the grave of his father, Dallas Police Department Senior Corporal Lorne B. Ahrens, who was among five police officers shot dead the previous week, after the burial ceremony in Dallas, Texas. #DallasStrong #WeAreDallas

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Photo by @alexkpotter - A girl waits to run at a @twincitiestrackclub All Comer's Meet in St Paul, MN. #track #running #TCTC #Minnesota #stpaul (at James Griffin Stadium)

[cooperneill]

Here are a few of my favorite shots yesterday from International Fight week in Las Vegas for the UFC. I covered the UFC200 Open Workouts with Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt followed by the UFC202 press conference with Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz and capped it all off with UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs Alvarez. It was a long day but totally worth it to see Eddie Alvarez become the new UFC lightweight champ!

You can see more of my work from UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs Alvarez here: http://www.cooperneill.com/index/G00000Gtugzy77XM

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Eddie Alvarez celebrates in his locker room after knocking out Rafael dos Anjos in the 1st round to become the UFC lightweight champion.

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UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt warms up before a workout ahead of his fight against former UFC champion and WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Hunt grew up with an abusive father and would deal with that by getting in fights with kids on the streets of Aukland, New Zealand. He had no intentions of fighting but after getting into a fight outside of a bar, a bouncer saw Hunt whooping up on a few guys and asked him to come train at his gym and he’s been fighting professionally every since. Genuinely one of the nicest guys I’ve met in the sport and a great story of someone turning the negative into positive.

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Photo by @alexkpotter - Members of the Eveleth Clown Band play in the Sand Bar before the 3rd of July parade in Gilbert, MN. #mn #ironrange #minnesota #independenceday #4thofjuly #music #evelethclownband (at Gilbert 3rd of July)

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Photo by @CooperNeill - always nice when you get a room with a view | Dallas, Tx.

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Photo by @alexkpotter - Patrons buy ice cream from the Portland Malt Shoppe in Duluth on Minnesota's North Shore. #nevertoocoldforicecream #icecream #minnesota #duluth #brr #light (at Duluth, Minnesota)