MPB Meets: Sports Photographer Eloisa Sánchez

Professional sports photographer Eloisa Sánchez works for Imago7, the Mexican football league's official photo agency. Eloisa's work has been published in several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, ESPA and Fox Sports. In this interview, Eloisa speaks to us about her journey, women in sports photography and her winning image for the 2021 World Sports Photography Awards.

Over to you, Eloisa.

MPB: Can you tell us about your journey as a photographer? What made you want to pursue sports photography as a career?

ES: I have been interested in photography since I was very little, thanks to my father. It was a hobby since childhood. I’ve always been an introverted person so I used to take photos just to have fun by myself and to try to treasure and appropriate things that seemed beautiful to me like clouds, sunsets, flowers and animals.

When I got a little bit older, I began to get more interested in the technical part of photography. I began doing experiments with different lenses, speeds and apertures to try to understand what those numbers meant. It was a slow and autodidact process as it was just film and no digital cameras available (I’m old). A lot of years after that, after I had finished my architecture degree, I couldn’t see myself doing architecture for a living. So, after a big existential crisis, I decided to get a photography degree and become a pro.

Sports photography came to me as a job opportunity that I never imagined. As I was just beginning my career, I was taking any photographic assignments I could find to get some money and experience, trying to get clients wherever I could. I did product shots, social events, art reproductions, portraits, and everything. So one day I met a Getty Images photographer and he asked if I could send my portfolio to the agency because they were going to start a very big project and they were looking for photographers and videographers, especially women. They liked my portfolio and I started working at their commercial productions as an assistant, but then they told me that they also needed me to help with sports editorial assignments. I was stunned. I was very honest and told them I had no clue about how to do sports photography; I had more of a commercial profile at that time. Fortunately, the chief editor and the photographers allowed me to start learning from them on-site.

The first time I tried to shoot a football match, I was stunned after I just kept shooting and shooting and I wasn’t getting more than six kinds of decent usable photos during an entire match. At that moment I fell in love with this new huge technical challenge I was facing and I haven't let it go since then.

MPB: Can you tell us about your winning image, Playing in the Mist, which won bronze in the ‘View' category for the World Sports Photography Awards? What kit do you use to capture this image?

ES: I took that photo during a chilly early morning while covering a summer Under-13 football tournament at the Mexican Football Federation facilities. The fog lasted around ten minutes and then disappeared. This tournament is quite intense; it lasts a full week with around eight matches per day. We weren’t expecting any of those days, so it was a surprise. First, we got worried because obviously, this would cause troubleshooting the first matches. But then I saw a very big opportunity to try to have a different approach and results. I was using a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM lens.

MPB: What camera and equipment do you use? And how important is the equipment to you as a photographer?

ES: Cameras bodies: Canon EOS 1DX Mark III, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and Canon EOS 5D Mark III. Camera lenses: Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM, Canon EF 200-400mm, Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS II USM, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.4 L IS USM, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM and Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM. Also, sometimes I use a Canon 430II Speedlite flash, lighting equipment for portraits and PocketWizard radios for the remote cameras.

For me, the equipment is very important but not essential. Of course, having a better camera or lens will make the job easier, but you can do sports photography with any camera and any lens. The most important thing to do in sports photography is to fully know the equipment you have, what are its limitations, what you want or need to achieve and also knowing all the photographic techniques. With these three things clear, you can do anything.

MPB: What is your favourite sport to photograph and why?

ES: Any sport that takes me out of my routine and comfort zone. Football is 99% of what I photograph. I like the sport, and I have a special relationship with it, but sometimes I need to shoot other things to refresh my eye and mind. I really like to shoot mixed martial arts and boxing. I don’t get to do it very often and it is a good challenge.

MPB: How important is it to understand the sport you are photographing?

ES: For me it is essential. Sports photography is all about technique and anticipation. And good luck, too! The actions are so fast that if you wait to see them through the viewfinder to shoot them, you will most likely miss them. You need to plan and anticipate what might happen to shoot at the highest peak of the action. And, to be able to anticipate, you need to know what is supposed to happen.

It is impossible to foresee the future. But, if you understand the dynamics of what is going to happen—the context, the background, the place where it takes place, the time, the rules, how it has already been photographed, what type of actions you might have and which ones are important—then you can anticipate what is more likely to happen. And, with good luck, have good results.

MPB: What is it like to be on the field, photographing players in action, in a stadium with thousands of fans chanting?

ES: Usually, we are too concentrated and busy getting all the photos we need to fulfil our daily briefs, but there are times when the atmosphere in the stadium, the energy of the fans and the spectacle that the athletes are given are so overwhelming that you just need to stop to listen, feel and enjoy the moment. It’s just amazing – hard to describe. You get goosebumps and a lump in the throat. Those are the moments in which you feel very lucky to do what you do and be where you are.

MPB: Let’s talk about women, sports and photography. In a field that is often considered as dominated by men, both on the field and behind the camera, women are finally challenging photography’s patriarchal discourse. What is it like for you as a woman to work in the industry?

ES: For me, it’s a great honour and I am proud to belong to this guild but it is also a great responsibility. As women, society forces us to constantly demonstrate that we can achieve the same level as a man when they are not even questioned if they can do it or not. Having to put up with belittling and patronizing comments, harassment, the demeaning of our achievements, fewer opportunities, a lower salary, being denied coverages and trips for the simple fact of being women, and above all this also having to prove that you can be equal or better than a man is a very heavy burden. But we need to keep pushing, all together, and use our given spaces to give opportunities to more women, from different economic and social contexts.

The reality is that I started doing sports photography because an agency needed to cover its gender quota. It's a little bit sad. But, at the same time, I'm grateful because without that quota I wouldn't have known this world. The agency I am working for now, Imago7, has done well to give women photographers an opportunity. But there is still a long way to go. At the moment we are only 7 women out of 50 employees. However, everyone is really thankful to be given the opportunity to develop as professionals just by looking at our work and not at our gender.

And now our responsibility is to expand this path with hard work. This path that the generations of women before us began to pave—with their struggle, sacrifice, endurance and constant work—for those of us who are here, and for the women who are to come.

MPB: The landscape of sports is changing, but challenges still remain. For young women looking to get into the industry, what advice would you give them?

ES: Prepare and educate yourselves the best you can. Know your equipment like the palm of your hand—it doesn’t matter which one you have—and learn all the photographic techniques you can, deeply, as if your life depended on it. Don’t believe the story of likes and social media, watch and learn from the best, be humble and analyse your work so you never stop improving. Ask for help and advice from people you admire but always keep your own vision. Remember that photography is a language and, just as with writing, you need to learn the letters to write words and form phrases. And then you will be able to write a kitchen recipe, a novel, a poem, or a song, is up to you.

And above all, don’t be afraid of trying. Most men apply to jobs being underqualified and get the jobs. Don’t be afraid of being underqualified: make that impostor syndrome conscious and fight it with knowledge and practice, tons of practice. Don’t wait to photograph 'big events' to start practising or making your portfolio. Practice wherever you can so that when you get an opportunity you are ready to take it. You will make mistakes, of course, but there is no other way of learning and becoming good at something.

MPB: What is your favourite memory of photographing a sport?

ES: It was 2017 and I was covering the first semifinal of the first women's professional soccer league in Mexico. I was photographing all these young women who had just been told by society that they could be professional soccer players. A new and deficient league but they were fulfilling a dream that they never imagined they could achieve at home. And there they were, leaving their bodies, hearts and souls on the pitch, playing one of the best games I have ever seen in my life.

In this excitement, I saw our struggle as women sports photographers reflected in their struggle as players of a 'male' sport. I saw their passion and dedication, their happiness to be playing their own league in a stadium, just like the few of us were photographing in a male-dominated industry. I couldn't hold back the tears, for them and for us. I will never forget that match.

MPB: What projects are you working on at the moment? Is there anything else you would like to add?

ES: It’s not a project as such, I don’t have one right now, but I’ve been assigned to follow and photograph the Mexican Women’s national football team for a year now. And I am so honoured, thankful and excited about this assignment. All the staff, coaching staff and players have accepted and treated me like part of the family and I couldn't be more grateful and honoured to grow along with them. And just like in that 2017 game, their dream of going to the World Cup and the Olympics is my dream to go and go with them. We will be fighting for a ticket as locals, against the world champions USA and the Olympic champions Canada, during the summer. Wish us luck and see you in New Zealand and Australia!

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This article is part of the MPB Guide to Sports Photography, our comprehensive look at how to create sports photography, with camera recommendations, advice and interviews with experts.