Access is a privilege
When working with sports teams, you can never take the access to games, venues, events, players, teams…. for granted, it is always a privilege to be allowed to be close to players during these times.
To be trusted to have the eyes to capture and share only what is appropriate, and for the players also to understand that what is shared online is there for a reason – be it the moments of joy when the team is winning and player is playing well. Or the moments when the team is not performing and player might have had a bad game…
Do I get it always right?? No – of course I do not, but I try to learn from the mistakes I make and constantly talk to the players about how they have felt about a photo/video I might have posted online.
Players can be honest about these things and sometimes a photo that I might have thought had a story that reflected on the game/performance – it might get a response that ‘please take that photo away…’ and when there is a reason for it that the players tell me.. I do MOST of the times take it down. Might not always have done so… and I have been told off by the players when I next have seen them 😉
Then it is a whole different story when you work/post for a team/federation – then there is MUCH more to consider that I might not consider (even if I have learnt A LOT from my time doing this). Teams and Federations have their own guidelines and images they want to uphold, even if I might not always see eye-to-eye with these.. but if they say that ‘this is wrong and don’t post it’ … who am I to question it.
One of the aspects I appreciate the most is when teams/players do allow me into the locker room after a big defeat – that is the hardest place to be as a photographer. Even if you are in some small way ‘part of the team’ – and when you spend months together with the team each year.. I do often feel the defeat.
Luckily mirrorless cameras have a totally silent mode, so I can keep taking photos even when the coach is giving an emotional speech, when the players are in tears.. in my view, these images are as important as the ones of the team winning and celebrating. And much harder to capture in the correct way – whether it is a player who is retiring hugging his/her coach after their final game, or a player being consoled by team mates after missing a shot that would taken the team through to the next round/win a medal.
These are the photos I often look and go ‘WOW!! I really was allowed to be there to capture this…’
So to the players, teams and federations I am working with and have worked for.. a HUGE thank you for allowing me to be there for the happy moments and sad moments… and hopefully I do justice to those moments with the images I capture.
And here’s to hoping for many more happy (and sad) moments to come in the coming years.
Photo in this most is of Elina Aarnisalo and Elsa Lemmilä after Finland lost to Ukraine in FIBA Women’s EuroBasket2023 qualifying in Riga in February 2023.
