Tom Jenkins is one of the most acknowledged and respected sports photographers in Europe. He has been shooting sports professionaly for more than 30 years, most of them for The Guardian/The Observer. Since then he has covered an extensive variety of sports mega-events such as FIFA World Cups, summer Olympic Games, Rugby World Cups, World Athletics Championships or major tennis tournaments, including Wimbledon on more than 20 occasions. His sports-based work led him to win numerous national and international awards in the field.
At the beginning of a new year we contact Tom to know a big more about his portfolio and his view on prospects and challenges of photojournalism and sports coverage in the current media landscape.
- When and why did you decide to cover sports as a photographer being this your main field of work since then?
- Growing up all I wanted to be was a sportsman. It didn't matter in what sport, be it football, cricket, golf. I even tried snooker. Then it dawned on me, when I was about 14, that I wasn't going to be good enough to earn a living from any sport. However, I was still obsessed with sports. It was about this time I started to get into art at school. As part of my art course I was introduced to photography and my love of the genre grew quickly. When I left school I went to a college to study photojournalism. My tutors there immediately knew of my desire to combine my two loves, photography and sport. However, for the first year of my course they didn't let me take any sports pictures. They wanted to make me a photographer first and I will always be very grateful for their guidance. I see myself as a photographer who takes sports pictures rather than a sports photographer. When I left college in 1989, I tried to follow my desires but at first I had to understand that I needed to take other pictures as well to earn a living. In 1990 I managed to get regular freelance work with The Guardian. Back then there wasn't enough sports work so I did whatever pictures they needed - portraits, news, fashion. Gradually, as the sports coverage grew in the paper, and The Observer joined, I got more and more sports work.
- Historically sports photojournalism has been one of the most technically and innovative areas in press photography (Sports Illustrated was a top reference media outlet for instance). May this happen because sports events let professionals be more creative and free in the coverage?
- The major camera companies have always looked towards sports photographers to test out their latest technology. I think this is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, sports photographers tend to be very visible at the biggest events in the world. Not only are we seen on TV but also our pictures are displayed and used in high profile media from these events. The second, and probably most important reason, is that sport tends to push their cameras to extremes. Trying to capture the fastest athletes in often the darkest conditions is a true test of a camera.
Also, for many years, sports events have seen how powerful still imagery can be for them, not only for advertising their events to the world but also attracting the right sponsors. So these events, combined with help from the camera manufacturers, have encouraged sports photographers to be innovative and to push the boundaries.
- What are the keys to cover an important sports event as a photographer for a big news organisation like The Guardian?
- First and foremost I am there to cover the story, whatever that may be. Almost all of the time my pictures will go alongside words from our writers and the combination of these two genres, pictures and words, will convey that story and make The Guardian's journalism more powerful. So I have to constantly think about that story and how I can illustrate it. Also this might be on several levels, from the very top headline to the sub-plots and side-bar pieces. I also have to work out how the story might be shown in the actual paper as well as the online coverage. For major events there also may be online galleries that I am working on at the same time and that might mean me shooting a different sort of image. I have to constantly think about the various levels of content The Guardian produces and make sure I'm getting images to suit them all.
"The Guardian's readership tends to be slightly younger than other newspapers and they are even more visually literate. So we have to make sure our visual content is up to the standard we believe in"
- There are only a few photojournalists devoted just to sports like you in the legacy media nowadays. In what way sports photojournalism is still important despite the changing media landscape in which we are constantly moving now?
- The Guardian's sport coverage is key to the success of the whole group. Their sports coverage has grown substantially over the last 30 years in which I have worked for them. The huge viewing figures that sport generates, certainly during major events like the Olympics and World Cup, show the desire for good sports coverage is not diminishing. I would hope that my pictures help with that coverage. We are living in a very visual world where people are now more image conscious, much more aware of what a good or bad picture is. The Guardian's readership tends to be slightly younger than other newspapers and they are even more visually literate. So we have to make sure our visual content is up to the standard we believe in.
- Is there any sport in particular more difficult to cover photographically than others?
- I try not to think about how difficult a particular sport is to cover. Every sport can have it's good and bad sides, every sport can be good one day, bad the next. There have been times when I hated football, the sport I do more than any other. It might have been after a boring match in freezing cold rain where the only key incident happened at the other end of the pitch. But then the next day my luck may change and suddenly I love football again.
- Any anecdote you would like to share with us about any specially difficult coverage in the past?
- This relates to my previous answer. The FA Cup Final at Wembley is the pinnacle of the English domestic season. There was a time in the 1990s when I covered five of these finals and not a single goal was scored at my end of the pitch. I would swap ends from one year to the next, plenty of goals would be scored but nothing changed - I thought I was cursed. It was just very bad luck and eventually I got a goal near me.
THREE PHOTOS TO BE REMEMBERED
After this interview we asked Tom Jenkins to select three of his favourite photos taken along his career, let us know stories behind those pictures and explain the reason why they are particularly special for him. This is the result of his choice:
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1) Mo Farah of Great Britain reacts as he crosses the finishing line to win the men's 5000m on day fifteen of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 11, 2012 in London.
When setting up for the final session of athletics in the main stadium, I knew the story of the night, and possibly the whole Olympics, would be if Farah completed the historic double of 10,000m and 5,000m victories. I managed to get a decent spot for a tight shot of him crossing the line, so I set up a remote camera with a wider angle designed specifically to include a lot of the crowd, hoping for some sort of reaction from them too. As the race was run at 7.30pm I knew there would be plenty of daylight to light up the stands. I was trying to create a frame that wasn’t just about an individual winning. More I wanted a feeling of national jubilation, a united Britain, celebrating the wonderful achievements of a Somali immigrant. I look back at this frame now and remember how proud I was of my city and my country at that time. How times have changed.
2) Nina Carberry flies off Sir Des Champs as they fall at The Chair fence during the Grand National during day three of the Grand National Meeting at Aintree Racecourse on April 9th 2016 in Liverpool.
I love covering the Grand National, the world's most famous steeplechase and a race that almost stops the nation. I have a well-rehearsed plan, one that gives me as many angles and viewpoints as possible. Part of this strategy involves putting a couple of remote cameras at the largest fence on the course, The Chair. That year I had a camera placed either side of the landing area. It was a very rainy day, which meant the ground was soft and the horses were tiring. Luckily for me, one of the remotes captured the moment Nina Carberry flew off her horse Sir Des Champs. For 25 years I had photographed the Chair during the Grand National, hoping one day my perseverance would pay off, and that day it did: this frame won best sports picture at the World Press Photo awards that year.
3/ Sweat drops off Rafael Nadal on the hottest day of the year as he struggles in his match with Thomas Bellucci on Court One during day two of Wimbledon 2015 at the All England Lawn Tennis Club on June 30th 2015 in Wimbledon.
Rafael Nadal was struggling to beat a low-ranked opponent during an early round on the No 1 Court. It was the hottest day of the year and I had noticed at the change of ends how the sweat was pouring off him while reaching down to pick up a drink by his chair. So I moved to the other side of the court, right behind his chair. I put a really long lens on so I could get in really tight to his face, isolating the drops. It was very hard to focus but eventually, after a few tries, I got the frame I wanted - something a bit different but also a picture that illustrated the story perfectly. I am still very proud of this photo.
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