The Big Interview
HAVING PHOTOGRAPHED MOST DISCIPLINES AROUND THE GLOBE, BRITISH PROFESSIONAL SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER BOB MARTIN HAS NOW COMPILED A PHOTO BOOK OF HIS GREATEST WORK. WE CATCH UP WITH HIM TO TALK ABOUT HIS WORK AND SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE MODERN AGE Words: JORDAN BUTTERS
Bob Martin
EARLY DIGITAL FILES WERE AWFUL, CERTAINLY WHEN YOU’D COME FROM SHOOTING BEAUTIFUL FILMS LIKE FUJI VELVIA AND PROVIA – DIGITAL LOOKED TERRIBLE, BUT IT’S WHAT THE AGENCIES WANTED
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T STARTED WITH an advert in the newspaper. It was for a job working in the darkroom of the sports photo agency Allsport. My dream was to work as a press photographer and this was close enough – an opening into that world. At the time Allsport was a small company with only around 11 of us working there. As a darkroom technician, if you wanted to shoot sports at the weekends then off you went with your camera for a good time.” Little did anyone know, but this young and enthusiastic darkroom technician would go on to become one of the most highly-regarded sports photographers in Europe, if not the world. Bob Martin’s career spans four decades and he’s captured some of the most iconic and instantlyrecognisable sporting images of our time. He’s won more than 60 national and international awards, including the World Press Photo Sports Picture of the Year in 2005 and is a three-time winner of British Sports Photographer of the Year. He was also the Photo Chief for the 2012 London Olympics, he's the man in charge of photography for The Championships at Wimbledon, a consultant to the International Olympic Committee as well as the Rio 2016 Olympics and, most recently, has been made an ambassador for Nikon UK! Surprisingly, Bob has somehow found the time to release his latest achievement – a photo book featuring his best work, entitled 1/1000th: The Sports Photography of Bob Martin. “I’ve worked on a lot of books, but this is the first pure ‘Bob’ book,” he reveals. “It’s an indulgent retrospective of my career. I tried to put it together a few years ago in time for the 2012 London Olympics, but it didn’t work out so I started the process again around 18 months ago. I wanted to produce an old-fashioned, heavy coffee-table photo book. It's not something you pick up, read through in one sitting and put back on the shelf. I’ve tried to make it appeal to a wide audience; there’s technical information and photo-talk for the photographers, lots of great images and information for the core sports fans as well as enough funny captions and stories for anyone with a general interest in sport to enjoy too. I'm very proud of it.”
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When presented with a career's-worth of work, and of the calibre that adorns Bob’s vast portfolio, how do you narrow down the selection? While there were a few favourites that regrettably didn’t make the cut, Bob says most of the photographs that he wanted in actually made it: “It was a long process. A few images didn’t make it because they wouldn’t stand up to reproduction at that size, or we couldn’t find the original transparencies from my early work and the scan wasn’t good enough; it’s a big book, almost A3-sized horizontally. One or two didn’t make it because we couldn’t find a good pairing for them in the layout; each page should turn over well and flow on from the previous. For instance, I couldn’t have used 50 skiing pictures in the book. Admittedly, there’s probably a bit too much tennis and a lot of Olympics in there because, well, I love shooting the Olympics. There’s quite a bit of golf, some portraits and lots of my feature photography work – it’s definitely got every important image I’ve taken and is representative of the types of things that I shoot and my best work.” As alluded to earlier, Bob’s career transcends the difficult switch from film photography to digital. Press agencies were some of the first to accept digital technology out of a necessity to be the first to deliver images. Bob is definitely not a traditionalist who thinks everything was better when shot on film, however, even so the initial transition wasn’t smooth: “I hated the switch to digital at first, but so did everyone I think,” says Bob. “Early digital files were awful, certainly when you would come from shooting beautiful films like Fuji Velvia and Provia – digital looked terrible, but it’s what the agencies wanted. Modern digital files on the other hand are a different story. Compiling the book drove that home – the film stuff simply does not look as good as modern digital. Here’s the other thing that people don't like to hear too: sports 1) "I mounted a Nikon D4s below a hurdle at Cheltenham and fired it remotely using a Pocket Wizard." 2) "Serena Williams at the French Open – what is unique here is that you can shoot down on that wonderful clay." 3) "Flood lamps pierce through the fog at The Turin Winter Olympics." 4) "Shadow play at the Monte Carlo IAAF Grand Prix, taken from a floodlighting pod."
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EXCLUSIVE READER OFFER
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As a Digital SLR Photography reader you can claim £10 off the price of 1/1000th: The Sports Photography of Bob Martin when purchased from the official website, courtesy of Bob and Vision Sports Publishing. To claim, simply visit: www.1-1000th.com and enter the code DIGITALSLRPHOTO at the checkout.
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Bob Martin
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photography is massively about equipment. If you have got a Nikon D4s and a top of the range 600mm, for example, you have got a far better chance of getting a great action shot than if you’ve got a 75-350mm with a 1.4x TC and a mid-range body. I admit that I don’t think my photography would have got where it has without the improvements in cameras. I was never a good follow-focuser for a start, so as soon as autofocus was introduced I stopped worrying about focusing and started concentrating on making my images better. The other thing I remember thinking was that if anyone could capture a sharp image now, what was I going to do to stand out? That’s when I started being a ‘proper photographer’. I became more aware of background, composition, content, colour and lines.”
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1) "Usain Bolt winning the Olympic 200m in Beijing. As he often looks at his time as he finishes, I set up by the timing clock." 2) "Shaking off the mud at Tough Guy in Wolverhampton." 3) "Perhaps my most famous image, Paralympian Xavi Torres dives in, as seen from a walkway above." 4) "One of the Russian synchronised swimming team somersaults out of the water."
You only have to briefly flick through 1/1000th to see that Bob’s work stands out from the crowd. His images are foremost great photographs, and sports photographs after that. He seemingly finds new angles, perspectives and viewpoints that the sometimes hundreds of other photographers at the same event simply aren’t seeing. He’s capturing more than just moments in sport, but images that tell the story of an athlete or event. Take, for instance, his iconic image of Paralympian swimmer Xavi Torres diving into the pool – many other photographers
captured the exact same moment, none of the other images were as graphic or captured people’s hearts like Bob’s did. While Bob’s early agency work relied on him creating a large volume of images from each event, as soon as editorial assignments started arriving he was able to slow down and really enjoy working. “When I started freelancing and joined Sports Illustrated I stopped being an agency photographer,” explains Bob. “I went from having to take 20 good pictures a day to pursuing only the best compositions, and wouldn’t mind spending three or four days capturing that one shot. As an agency photographer you have to produce quantity, but with Sports Illustrated they’d send you to a tennis tournament for two weeks and only use four images; I could take my time in creating my best work.
I WENT FROM HAVING TO TAKE 20 GOOD PICTURES A DAY TO PURSUING ONLY THE BEST COMPOSITIONS, AND WOULDN’T MIND SPENDING THREE OR FOUR DAYS CAPTURING THAT ONE SHOT
Bob Martin
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AN IMAGE MIGHT GET USED ONCE WHEN IT’S FIRST TAKEN AND THEN IT’S DEAD. IT’S GOT TO BE THE BEST IMAGE EVER TAKEN OF SOMEONE TO HAVE ANY KIND OF SHELF LIFE
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1)"Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, taken with a robotic camera in the roof. The other photographers behind him only got his back as he celebrated!" 2) "Novak Djokovic always looks at his family when he wins, so I positioned myself to capture this." 3) "At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, I found this dark background and, by luck, it started to snow." 4) "Taken inside a huge hot air balloon at the Château-d'Oex balloon festival in Switzerland." 5) "Young kids are taught how to dive in Beijing."
Nowadays, the majority of my work is commissioned, shooting at events for sponsors and organising bodies, or taking on commercial projects. If a client wants 500 pictures delivered on the day then I'm the wrong person for the job, but if they want a great selection of eye-catching images to use to promote their event then I think I’m the right kind of photographer.” Bob also does his fair share of consultancy work for sporting bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee and Wimbledon. This involves advising organisers on locations and facilities for press
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photographers to ensure that the images produced portray the event in the best possible light. Bob's business has evolved, not only as a product of his own success, but also out of necessity as professional sports photography is drastically different now to what it was three decades ago. “In my early days I had the aspiration of shooting away during my career, building a fantastic library of images that would allow me to retire early on the spoils of licensing my lifetime's work,” he recounts. “It’s just not like that anymore. Now, an image might get used once when it’s first taken and then it’s dead. It has got to be
the best image ever taken of someone or something momentus to have any kind of shelf life. What’s more, the big players are the agencies like Getty, Reuters and AP – they have the technology and distribution to get the pictures out first. The days of the maverick freelancer are certainly numbered.” With the new book out there for the world to enjoy, Bob wholeheartedly admits that he can’t see himself doing another: “You’d have to have another lifetime to capture another set of pictures like this,” he says. Plus, he’s full-steam ahead preparing for a busy summer shooting at the 2016 Olympics in
Rio, an event which he admits is a favourite above all others. “It’s the peak of all sports,” Bob remarks. “I’m a huge fan of the Olympic Games. Pretty much every discipline is delivered to a better level, photographically, than at any other event. You get better celebrations, bigger moments and more emotion at the Olympics than at any other sporting event. I still get a buzz when I get a really good picture, and shooting at the Olympics is extra-special.” 1/1000th: The Sports Photography of Bob Martin is available now, priced at £50. For more information, visit: www.1-1000th.com February 2016 Digital SLR Photography 101