"Mind Over Man" Jim Karol Collaborates With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer Brian Smith

Jan. 30, 2014 - PRLog -- Celebrity mentalist Jim Karol, represented by Upper Group Holdings, recently worked with Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Smith on an extensive and creative photo session. Known for his nuanced celebrity portraits, Smith shot hundreds of color and black-and-white images to capture the many faces of Karol: Mind Over Man, Guinness World Record holder, brain training expert, memory master, entertainer. The resulting portraits are powerful and captivating, much like the subject himself, and will soon be showcased on Karol’s revamped website, JimKarol.com, as well as in editorial features and promotional materials.

“Working with Brian was such a thrill,” Karol says. “He has a great eye and was really able to capture me in action and show my energy level.”

Shot at Smith’s Miami Beach studio, the dramatic series features Karol in many different ensembles, reflective of his multifaceted persona. He is also pictured performing several of his best-known and most astonishing feats. Karol tosses a playing card toward the camera in the image “King of Cards,” a skill that earned him a Guinness World Record in 2000, when he threw a card more than 200 feet. In “Mind Bender,” Karol holds a 60-penny nail, which he can bend with his bare hands. “The Trapper” shows Karol suspending a double-jawed steel bear trap from his hand. Through sheer mental and physical strength, Karol can spring the trap closed on his hand completely without injury, a feat that he performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Karol tapped Smith because of his well trained eye and extensive experience with A-list stars, executives and athletes, including Bill Gates, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Tony Bennett, Richard Branson and more. Smith’s work has been featured in such publications as Sports Illustrated, Time, Forbes, New York Times Magazine and Elle. He has exhibited at the Library of Congress, and he won the Pulitzer Prize at age 25 for his photographs of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

“All the things that make Jim Karol a great stage performer combine to create his amazing visual presence,” Smith says. “Jim is a portrait photographer’s dream subject.”

To view the photos and for more information on Jim Karol, visit www.jimkarol.com. To schedule a media interview or appearance, contact Michelle Soudry at The Gab Group: 561-750-3500 or msoudry@thegabgroup.com.

About Jim Karol

“Mind Over Man” Jim Karol is America’s foremost memory and brain training expert recognized for his incredible memory and unusually high brain capacity, due to years of self-brain training. Voted the World’s Greatest Mentalist at the World Magic Awards, he has entertained millions across the globe—including celebrities Jenny McCarthy, Steven Tyler, Matt Damon and Carmen Electra—via events and TV appearances, including “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and NBC’s “TODAY Show.” Karol was chosen as a contestant on NBC’s “Phenomenon” and assisted in creating the movie “Jackass Number Two,” in which he had a cameo. Karol has earned two Guinness World Records and has toured the country with Guinness. In his live shows, Karol performs such feats as bending 60-penny nails, allowing a bear trap to close on his hands without injury and identifying information about audience members. His has memorized more than 80,000 zip codes, every word in the Scrabble dictionary and can memorize a shuffled deck of playing cards in less than a minute. He’s known for his high energy, sense of humor and passion for sharing brain training secrets with others. Karol was recently appointed spokesperson for the International Brain Research Foundation. Karol is represented by Upper Group Holdings in Miami. For more information, visit www.jimkarol.com.