Rink Rat
The smells, the details; MattJasper’s “Home Ice” showcases the beauty and nostalgia of hockey rinks across the state
By: Tyler Mason | photos by: Matt Jasper
Though it’s been decades since Matthew Jasper was a peewee hockey player in Grand Rapids, he still vividly remembers exactly how the odors of Warroad Memorial Arena hit his nose.
“It just absolutely smelled like a shin pad,” Jasper recalled. “It smelled like old-time hockey.”
It was a photo of that same arena (which has since been torn down) that Jasper had hanging on his wall as a kid and later when he lived out in Oregon—where he had to drive two hours to play pick-up hockey on a rink in a strip mall. That photo of a classic Minnesota hockey rink served as the catalyst for a project that took Jasper to more than 70 rinks throughout the state over a 15-year span, all with his camera in hand.
The culmination of that journey is a coffee table book titled “Home Ice,” which showcases the features and quirks and quintessential hockey personalities of 72 rinks in Minnesota.
“That’s just kind of where the idea came from was I just started thinking about all the arenas we got to play in like Grand Rapids, Greenway, the Hibbing Memorial, Eveleth and all those rinks,” Jasper said. “I thought it’d be kind of cool to put together a book of the spectrum of rinks throughout the state of Minnesota.”
With a film school background, Jasper eventually picked up a camera to complement his video work. It struck him that still photography would stand the test of time in capturing hockey rinks.
The project got put on hold for a bit when Jasper had to do what he calls “real work.” But he eventually picked it back up when that real work wasn’t quite as fulfilling as he was hoping for.
So he continued to traverse the state, from Grygla to Roseau to Minnesota’s Iron Range to 3M at Mariucci Arena, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. No two arenas he stopped at were the same, especially some of the older arenas he set foot in. One thing they did all have in common, however, was that each community that housed those arenas took tremendous pride in them. And they all were thrilled to be featured in Jasper’s book.
“I’ve gotten a lot of letters from people saying how meaningful it was to see their own rink and they talk about their old memories. That’s really cool,” Jasper said. “There’s 72 rinks in the book, so clearly I had to leave some out. People whose rinks didn’t make the book, they like to let you know that the rink didn’t make the book, either.”
Jasper initially figured there were between 20-30 arenas in Minnesota that were worthy of this special type of photoshoot. It wasn’t until he trekked across each region of the state that he realized just how vast the spectrum of rinks in Minnesota truly is. Because that number of rinks kept growing, Jasper thought displaying the photos digitally would be the way the project turned out. In the end, though, he chose to present the pictures in a high-end book.
At each rink, Jasper tried to at least get the same style of what he calls an on-the-nose shot—taken at ice level from the far end looking down the length of the ice. Equipped with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera, Jasper brought a trio of different lenses to give him options. In some arenas, if time allowed, he also used a video camera to get some b-roll footage.
The process of getting access to each of the rinks he photographs varied based on where he went. Some towns and rink managers let Jasper spend as much time as he needs on the ice, with some even joking that he can just lock the arena up when he leaves. Occasionally, he was on a tighter time constraint that meant pre-planning for the shots he wants was crucial. There are some arenas that he never was able to shoot because nobody picked up the phone.
“You wouldn’t think it would be that hard to set up times to shoot hockey rinks when they’re empty because it’s usually like 8 a.m.and 3 p.m.; it’s usually wide open,” Jasper said. “But there are certain places that didn’t make the book where I called 12 times, nobody ever got back to me, and eventually that rink was torn down.”
Jasper is constantly scoping the arenas out to find characteristics that make them unique, whether that’s obstructed-view seats, details in the roof or anything else that makes that particular arena stand out. He was drawn to the scoreboard of the rink in East Grand Forks, for example, that hung down really low to partially block some views.
The whole time he’s snapping the camera’s shutter, Jasper feels some pressure. He’s well aware of what these rinks mean not just to the players past and present who have skated on the ice, but the communities that fill the seats of the arenas to support their local teams.
“I just want to capture it correctly. I want to do it justice,” he said. “To be honest, these rinks aren’t going to be around forever. It almost started to feel like it was historical documentation after a certain point, you know? There’s rinks in the books that are no longer standing or no longer being used.”
The most nervous Jasper felt at any point in the project was capturing his home rink in Grand Rapids. This was the rink of his childhood and one that meant a lot to him, but also one that meant a lot to his friends and family, too. He knew the community would be curious to see how the photos turned out. Plus, they would be living on for a long time in the book
“I kept procrastinating that one because, one, it’s a very dark arena,” he said. “And it’s your home ice and you want to do it right.”
For sentimental reasons, the rink in Greenway was Jasper’s favorite to photograph (besides his home rink in Grand Rapids). In addition to having that classic arena feel, it held extra meaning to Jasper because his grandfather helped build it.
As for a bucket list rink, Jasper opened the borders beyond Minnesota to say he’d love the chance to photograph the historic Madison Square Garden in New York City. Yale’s Ingalls Ice Rink, commonly known as The Whale, is also on his list.
But there’s something special about the rinks in his home state. The proof of that is in every note he’s received about the “Home Ice” project.
“The response has been great,” Jasper said. “You kind of feel like you’ve tapped into a mini little culture. The feedback you get, especially from the small towns in northern Minnesota, how proud they are, ‘Hey, thanks for showcasing us in your book,’ it makes it worthwhile.”
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