Extreme Sports Photography with Hannah Bailey

Best known for her skateboarding photography, award-winning outdoor and action sports photographer Hannah Bailey speaks with MPB about her camera setup, shooting adventure sports and her winning photos for the 2021 World Sports Photography Awards. Hannah has made it her mission to use her photography to challenge the media and showcase authentic and inspiring images of women in the arena of action and outdoor sports. She’s now working towards closing the gap behind the lens, inviting more people to shoot—and encouraging a more creative and diverse range of perspectives—within action sports photography. Over to you, Hannah.

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

HB: I really just fell into action sports photography becoming part of my career. More than ten years ago, I was working in communications in the action and outdoor sports industry. I would go to events and competitions all the time and often notice that the lady's side would be overshadowed or ignored completely by the industry or media. As someone who photographed as a creative outlet, I would always be there with a camera—at the beginning, this was a playful Lomography LCA or fisheye—and so I would take some photos of the female athletes, or competitions, and also try and interview some of them to offer features to the media. For example, in 2013, I went to the X Games in Barcelona. They had reintroduced women’s skateboard park back into the contest, and the competitor lineup included some of the legends of skateboarding, old and new, from Elissa Steamer to Karen Jonz, Mimi Knoop to Lizzie Armanto. I stumbled upon the practice session and ended up being invited to interview as many of the athletes as I wanted. This was thanks to Kim Woozy, at Mahfia TV, who had created a global platform for women’s extreme sports and was open to others who wanted to grow awareness and support the scene. 

I believed that what I was seeing within women’s action sports deserved a platform and spotlight, which it simply was not receiving enough of at that time. I also recognised the visual power of action sports to infiltrate the mainstream media and challenge them to think about how they were portraying women. It sparked my mission to use my photography as a way of challenging the media to showcase authentic and inspiring images of women, which I believed existed in the arena of action and outdoor sports.

Since then, there have been 10 years of stories, experiences and learnings, but more recently, my attention has turned to closing the gap behind the lens to try and invite more people to photograph these sports so we can have more creative and diverse perspectives represented.

MPB: Can you tell us about your winning image Bridging the Gap, To Balance is Trust, which won in the ‘Urban and Extreme' category for the World Sports Photography Awards? What kit do you use to capture this image?

HB: This shot was taken at the end of the summer in 2020 after the first lockdown had lifted. I had an idea in my notebook for many years about inviting a skateboarder to adventure around one of the most remote parts of mainland Scotland, the northwest Highlands. It has been an area I’ve travelled through for years, and I always wondered what a skateboarder's perspective would make of it. Ultimately, it is a wild environment, with little human development or concrete, so a challenge for a skater. But I knew there were spots within it, and I knew it could be special. Skateboarders love ‘never been dones’! So I invited my friend, the legendary UK skateboarder Helena Long, to join me on the journey, and we explored together for five glorious days. From Talmine Pier to Skerray Harbour, Drumbeg to Crask, she looked at it with fresh eyes and with a skateboarder's urges. I was there to capture it, but also to bring my connection to the area. 

The shot that won the Urban and Extreme category was taken early in our trip under the leg of Kylesku Bridge, which crosses over Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin, with Quinag rising in the background. What a spot. It was so much bigger than we had imagined—even for me, despite having crossed it many times—Helena had to shimmy up a wobbly stone pile to get on there with her board. I photographed this with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and an 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM lens, shot as wide as it went. I was crouching down in the broken, getting eaten alive by midges, but it was worth it. At the time, I didn’t know if I had managed to capture such a complex scene. But what makes it special is that while I was focused on the landscape and environment ahead of me, Helena was doing the same with her skating, and this is what worked together to capture the shot.

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

HB: As a creative, I am a big believer that you don’t always need all the gear, just the idea. Then, it’s really important to find equipment that works for you, whereby you will actually shoot what you are inspired to—and not get confused or bogged down by the technology out there. I don’t want to be held back or feel the pressure of technology, as I enjoy the creative side of photography. As I have been given more opportunities to work as a photographer, whether recognised through awards or support from grants or brands, I have an increased focus on the quality of my work and making sure I capture the sports I love in the best possible light. I am really lucky to photograph editorially and creatively a lot, therefore I make images I want to see. But, more and more, I want to see them big! I currently shoot on the Sony A7R III, with two of my favourite lenses, the 85mm f/1.4 GM and the 35mm f/1.4 GM. 

For my wider series, To Balance is Trust, which I released alongside the Olympics last year and included the Helena bridge shot, I photographed the whole thing on this setup. Capturing the eyes’ perspective for the action shots, with a fast shutter speed on the 35mm, then getting up close to my subjects to photograph portraits on the 85mm with a wide aperture.

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

HB: I will always have to give skateboarding a nod because the activity, the people and the community have given me a lot of material and adventures. And it’s what got me started! Last year, I went to Athens to support Free Movement Skateboarding, an NGO providing programs to refugees and vulnerable youth in the city. One day, I was in the orphanage, photographing the kids having fun and learning through skateboarding, and seeing the power a plank of wood and four wheels can have to change lives and provide opportunities. A few days later, with a friend of mine, Will—who founded the charity—I was in the abandoned 2004 Olympic canoe rapid stadium. I photographed Will and his crew skating the derelict forgotten concrete, giving it use that it hasn’t had for almost two decades. 

Photographing skateboarding can provide incredible adventures, and it gives me hope because of the good people involved. In general, beyond skateboarding, it is the culture and humans of outdoor and action sports that are my favourites. The people use them for the environmental and societal good of the world.

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

HB: It is essential in core outdoors and action sports, such as skateboarding, that you are in it for the right reason. It is very sensitive to that. I think it is as important to understand the mission of your photography and what you want to bring to the scene and contribute. In the skateboard scene, I have always been a bit of an outcast photographer, never really being included in the skateboard mags or photographing things in a conventional core way. But I so respect the photographers who do, such as Leo Sharp and Jenna Selby in the UK. But, for me, my mission as a photographer in skateboarding and the wider action sports scene has been to raise awareness of the women’s side and invite more people into it. I have been driven to find new platforms and different ways to visually capture the ‘sport’, plus different stories to support, like the Melanin Skate Gals and Pals, or Neighbourhood Skate Club.

Not only do I photograph outdoor sports and action sports, but I am also a participant—I love to snowboard, split board, trail run and hike. Plus, I work in communications in the industry, and I run a community interest group in Scotland to encourage more people to try these activities. When you are passionate about something, you find yourself getting involved in everything!

MPB: What is it like to photograph athletes in action?

HB: It is rare for our sport to be in the arena or competitive space. But things are changing and that has all to do with the Olympics. Due to the pandemic, and limitations in Tokyo, I don’t know of any female skateboard photographers who made it to photograph the historic moment. It’s disappointing. But, for me, photographing contests has been a lot about following the scene and seeing it grow up to the Olympic debut. I was at the first Street League Skateboarding, which featured women for the first time in 2015—yes, only then! It felt nerve-racking to see the competitors skating in front of a huge crowd, something that they were still getting used to and took a few years to do.

I remember in 2016, I went to Los Angeles to photograph at Street League for i_D magazine, and record for the BBC World Service podcast. I had a Google Earth moment when standing on the course shooting, where I zoomed out of that stadium to see how far I was from Scotland, to realise how far I had come. I was on the sidelines, with two other female skateboarding photographers, and we were really fuelled to work alongside each other. It was really a moment for us to realise that as the women’s skate scene grew, so would the behind-the-scenes, and more women would be behind the lenses. That was an exciting prospect!

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? 

HB: Talking about the scene in general, and not just photographers within it, until recently, we had our own industry tucked away and growing itself. Women in action sports, in front of and behind the scenes, have been working together for decades or longer to create opportunities, self-fund video projects, share knowledge, take photographs, run events and make it what it is—the women’s action sports scene. 

In the wider industry, it has always been difficult to get support financially and in marketing. And it continues to be so. In skateboarding, this standalone scene resulted in a surge in participation of girls and women and, more recently, invited in further communities—such as BIPOC and Queer—with many amazing grassroots organisations working to create space. All this has since been incorporated into the wider scene, finally. Though not without challenges.

As female photographers, we are still fighting for opportunities and equality when it comes to being paid or offered official work in the space, which I know is an issue of diversity in general. I do believe now, brands and media are looking through their pages and campaigns to find space for new people to be featured in front of the camera and are beginning to think that way behind the camera. So, the change is coming. But there is a long way to go.

MPB: For young women looking to get into the industry, what advice would you give them? 

HB: I would say, firstly, believe in yourself and take it seriously—whilst having fun. I spent many years photographing these sports on the side of my job, alongside trips or events I was going to anyway, as I wasn’t getting paid as a photographer. But also, I didn’t want to put pressure on it. Could I have made it early on as a full-time skateboarding, action sports, and outdoor sports photographer? I’ll never know. But each person's path is different, and I don’t regret mine. But for those ladies pushing behind us: don’t work for free, invest in a good camera plus two lenses, and reach out to the people you respect and want to work with. Find something you believe in and are passionate about within sports. Don’t always look the same way as everyone else, and your creativity will be in the right place to make a difference.

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

HB: Every shoot is a story to tell, thanks to the sports and people I photograph. But what jumps out to me is Long Live Livi. It was 2019. I had only just returned to Scotland, and by then, I had photographed girls and women skateboarding all over the world—from Afghanistan to Cambodia, Sweden to Greece. 

But this was different. I was invited by director Parisa Urquhuart on a shoot 40 minutes down the road from where I grew up at Livingston Skatepark. This is where I met the Snagglerats, a group of young skateboarders who were fighting to get the park refurbished. I was so inspired to meet little Scottish skaters in my own back garden who were passionate about the sport, the community and bringing more people into it. They were only six years old! I remember turning up to photograph the behind-the-scenes for the BBC Scotland documentary that Parisa was making. Within minutes, the three Snagglerats had pushed over to me to ask who my favourite skater was. I was meant to be behind the camera, and so was trying to shuffle off and keep out of the way. But that is not the skateboarder's way! Rudi, Mac and Poppie—the Snagglerats—are still skating, attending competitions, and inspiring more people into the sport. These are the people who inspire me most in the sports I photograph, and there are endless stories of the humans out there on the ground using sport for good.

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

HB: I have recently returned from Brussels, where I was working on a photography project with my friend and ex-Skateistan—skate for Development non-profit—colleague Mubaraka Mohammadi. She is a photographer and is now an Afghan refugee living in Belgium. We are working together on a project called Home/Khana to share the perspective of what it means to be a refugee, and what we think it means. To break down the stigma attached to the word, and help people realise we are all simply human. She is a skateboarder, runner and footballer, and that is what united us, but this will go beyond sport to put her story first.

Also, this past winter season, my friend Lesley McKenna—legendary Scottish snowboarder and three-time Olympian, and I set up Wandering Workshops. It’s a community interest group here in Scotland to provide a safe space for more people to get into outdoor sports and invite their perspectives. As a photographer, I am there to help them document their experience so we can challenge the media and scene with more diverse images and new angles to it all.

Both these projects go beyond just photographing sports, although I will always be fuelled by capturing the action. There is so much to the culture of sports to explore, on the sidelines, in the environment and in the minds of the people. I hope I can continue to do that and represent authentic stories and images in this space, but also be part of inviting more people to be photographers in this industry.

Looking for more sports photography content? 

This article is part of the MPB Guide to Sports Photography, our comprehensive guide to creating sports photography, which includes camera recommendations, advice and interviews with experts.