As Minnesotans, many of our rites of passage involve the water: First fish, first sunrise over the lake, first time on a boat, and so on. But for many lake-area folks, the first time jumping off the Arcola Bridge over Crystal Bay is a big one.
Jon Sadeh took this photo, “Right of Passage,” with his Canon 6D, and it received second place in the People & Families category of our 2015 Lens on Lake Minnetonka photo contest.
Sadeh grew up in Bloomington and didn’t spend a lot of time on Lake Minnetonka, but during a previous career as a bartender at Lord Fletcher’s, he had many bar-goers explain to him the significance of jumping off of the bridge. “It was just kind of something that you did when you were going through school back in the day, and apparently it’s a tradition that still exists,” Sadeh explains.
During his editing process, Sadeh wanted to choose a style that reflected the vintage history of this tradition. “I wanted to capture that mentality of youth. They’re breaking the rules, they shouldn’t be doing this,” says Sadeh. “But it’s something that their parents probably did, and maybe their parents before them. I just thought it was a cool moment in time that really reflected on the history of the community of Lake Minnetonka.”
