The College Midfielder Makes a Strong Case for Double Duty
Fresh faced and coming in hot from Honolulu, model and former college soccer player Braden McCann steps in front of photographer Peter Knapman’s lens for a DNA Magazine photo series with athletic ease already built into the frame.
McCann’s camera confidence did not arrive from nowhere. Before modeling became part of the picture, the Tulsa native competed as a midfielder for Chaminade University in Honolulu, logging 24 appearances across his first two collegiate seasons while earning Academic All-Pacific West Conference recognition both years.
That combination—athlete discipline, Hawaii light and the kind of face agencies know how to place—gives Knapman plenty to work with. The resulting series keeps the attention where it belongs: on McCann’s natural presence rather than an overbuilt concept trying to fight him for the photograph.
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Braden McCann Brings Athlete Discipline Into the Modeling Frame
McCann’s Chaminade profile lists him as a biology major with plans for medical school, which makes the modeling chapter feel less like a carefully manufactured identity and more like one more lane in an unusually full schedule. Soccer, academics and professional image work demand different skills, but all three reward preparation and consistency long before anybody sees the finished result.
On the field, McCann started 17 matches over two seasons and spent more than 1,300 minutes competing for the Silverswords. In front of the camera, that same physical awareness translates differently: knowing where the body sits, how posture changes a line and when the smallest shift can carry the entire image.
In other words, the handsome part gets thee attention, but the discipline is doing plenty of the work.
Focus International Hawaii represents McCann as a model and actor in Honolulu. The agency connection also brought him into Knapman’s orbit, pairing a Hawaii-based fresh face with a photographer whose portraits consistently favor clean composition, direct presence and subjects who do not need excessive styling tricks to register.
DNA Magazine later presented the collaboration in two parts, confirming Knapman as photographer and McCann as the model. No stylist, grooming artist or wardrobe labels are identified with the published credits, so the series remains refreshingly simple on paper: one model, one photographer and the chemistry they found across two shoots.
Peter Knapman Lets the Fresh Face Carry the Story
Knapman’s approach works because it does not bury McCann beneath unnecessary production. The series reads as a direct introduction, using the model’s athletic foundation and easy camera presence as the through-line instead of forcing every photograph to announce a different idea.
That is exactly what a strong fresh-faced feature should do. It should leave readers knowing the model’s name, recognizing the photographer’s eye and understanding why the collaboration deserved more than a single frame.
Braden McCann may have arrived through college soccer and Honolulu modeling, but Peter Knapman makes sure the final impression belongs entirely to the camera.
See Braden McCann in Peter Knapman’s DNA Magazine Photo Series
Nine additional photographs continue the Hawaii-based collaboration below.
Braden McCann appears throughout Peter Knapman’s photo series for DNA Magazine. Model represented by Focus International Hawaii.
Editorial credits: Model: Braden McCann. Photography: Peter Knapman. Model agency: Focus International Hawaii. Publication: DNA Magazine.
Sources: DNA Magazine; Focus International Hawaii; Chaminade University Athletics.
