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This is a stadium, not a correctional facility
This is how the access point to a stadium has changed over time. From a place where people gather to have fun enjoying the performances of the soccer players, it has now been morphed into something more akin to a correctional facility. I have witnessed this transformation first-hand, having coached a small team of javelin, shot put, discus and hammer throwers here since 1992. Year after year, the day after the Sunday match, when the stadium was made available again for track and field training, I saw the premises looking more and more like an urban riot zone and less and less like a place to prove oneself in various…
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Stadio Olimpico, seen from Tribuna Monte Mario
The Stadio Olimpico is not an easy subject to photograph, especially when seen from the lofty and privileged perch of the Tribuna Monte Mario. The vantage point offers grandeur, but grandeur doesn’t always translate easily into pixels—especially under the kind of merciless lighting that the stadium seems to favour at night. From this spot, the sweeping geometry of the roof dominates the composition. Its repeating, honeycomb-like pattern glows under the sodium vapour lights, casting a heavy golden hue that floods the upper half of the frame. Below, the seating—empty and rendered in cool blues—acts as a counterweight, both in tone and texture. The effect is a split visual dialogue between…
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Ultras
I took this shot in Pescara during a night of celebration and mayhem—where passion collided with authority, and the air thickened with smoke, sweat, and sound. It wasn’t violence, not quite. It was euphoria channelling itself into a public rite, where boundaries between fanfare and disorder blurred in real time. From a photographic standpoint, the scene presented a compositional chaos that demanded structure. I used the police car as an anchor. It sits dead centre, unintentionally symbolic, both literally and metaphorically surrounded. The crowd’s energy surges outward from it, flags, limbs, phones, chants—all reaching towards the bus in the background that carries the real object of devotion: the team. Technically,…
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A Different Passion…
If football is a religion — and for many it is — then what are its rituals, and who are its saints and martyrs? I came across this man during a rally, wrapped in his team’s colours, crowned with blue plastic strands like a DIY halo, cigarette pinched between fingers, gaze lost somewhere off-frame. He didn’t look triumphant, nor devastated. Just worn — by hope, by defeat, by something in between. This wasn’t theatre for the camera. He wasn’t performing. He was just still, in that half-breath between chants or cheers or curses. From a technical standpoint, I shot this with a shallow depth of field, using a fast lens…
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@ Mediterrean Beach Games 2015 – Italian Beach Soccer Team (and a primer on sport-photography, part 4)
Part 1 – Intro, Before the event, getting your media pass Part 2 – Before the event, having your media pass working for you Part 3 – During the event, get ready for the show 2 – How to choose which event attend to Possibly the most difficult thing to handle in multi-competition events is how to select the sport and the stage (qualifications, semi-finals, first-second place final etc.) Unless you’re working for a specific team as its official photographer or asked to mainly portrait sponsor’s banner (yes, this happens in sport-photography: athletes are just a way to channel the eyes on a chocolate bar or a bottle of wine),…
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@ Mediterranean Beach Games 2015 – Italy Beach Soccer Team’s Goalkeeper (and a primer on sport photography, part 2)
2 – Have the media pass working for you Part 1 of this primer dealt with the topic “Getting Your Media Pass”. Now is the time to use it properly. a – Meet the media-manager and participate to the technical briefing (or anyway get the relevant information about the competition) If the competition is big enough, chances are that the organizing committee has appointed a media-manager in charge of handling all the issues related to broadcasting services and photographers. You definitely need to talk to him as early as you can, to get: your numbered “photographer jacket” (often needed to access the competition fields), a leaflet with all the relevant…
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@ Mediterranean Beach Games 2015 – Italian Anthem (and a primer on sport photography, part 1)
Intro Working on assignment is different than loitering around “waiting for the moment”. This is true, in particular, for sport photography where you have to handle multiple issues at a time, most of them not related to the actual shooting activity. While there are a lot of sources to drink from that hint about how to assemble and check the gear, which lens is better suited for the job and so on, a less fancy but nevertheless critical issue to be aware of is how to handle the logistic and administrative stuff. Before the event 1 – Getting your media pass a – Accelerate the shipping of the accreditation…
