Eileen Langsley: The Female Photographer Who Shaped Olympic Coverage
In this episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast, Angela speaks with Eileen Langsley, one of the most influential figures in the world of sports photography. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, Eileen has documented 14 Olympic Games, covered countless world championships and transformed the way female athletes are seen through the lens.
Listen to another episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast
Eileen’s path into photography was far from conventional. She began her professional life as a PE teacher in Sheffield, inspired by her students and the lack of strong, empowering images of women in sport. Frustrated by the sexist imagery that dominated the media at the time, she decided to take matters into her own hands - literally. With no formal training but plenty of determination, she picked up a camera and started capturing the athleticism and grace of her students, quickly earning a reputation for excellence.
During the conversation, Eileen shares how she built her career despite being repeatedly told there was no place for women in professional sports photography. Her persistence paid off, eventually leading her to become the official photographer for the Federation of International Gymnastics - a role she held for two decades. She offers fascinating insights into what it was like working in the days of film, processing images in hotel bathrooms and sending prints across the globe before dashing to her next assignment.
Eileen discusses how preparation, deep knowledge of sport and anticipation are essential to capturing the decisive moment, far beyond simply owning a good camera. She also reflects on the dramatic changes she’s witnessed in the industry, including the explosion of photographers at recent Olympics and the increased presence of women in the press pit.
With a sharp eye, a determined spirit and a profound love for sport, Eileen Langsley has helped shape not only Olympic photography but also the way we view women athletes. Her story is one of resilience, creativity and quiet revolution - it’s essential listening for anyone passionate about photography or sport.
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Episode Transcript
Eileen Langsley 0:04
These days, it is very difficult. I honestly don't think I could start my career now the way I did back in 1980, it's very competitive. You've got these huge major agencies who are gobbling up all the major income, and in fact, have photographers worldwide at every event you can think of, and all working in pole position, and that's your competition.
Angela Nicholson 0:36
Welcome to the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I'm Angela Nicholson, and I'm the founder of SheClicks, which is a community for female photography. Female photographers. In these podcasts, I talk with women in the photographic industry to hear about their experiences, what drives them and how they got to where they are now. In this episode, we hear from Eileen Langsley, a true trailblazer in sports photography, from her beginnings as a PE teacher in Derbyshire to covering 14 Olympic Games becoming the official photographer for International Gymnastics. Eileen has spent nearly 50 Years documenting elite sport and challenging the way female athletes are seen. Hi, Eileen, thank you so much for joining me on the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast today.
Eileen Langsley 1:17
Thanks. I'm very happy to be here.
Angela Nicholson 1:19
Great. Thank you. Now you had an interesting route into photography. Perhaps you could explain that to the listeners?
Eileen Langsley 1:25
Yeah, I was a sporty child at secondary school. I enjoyed the experience of sport there enormously. In due course, I went on to train as a PE teacher, and I taught in Sheffield for 15 years, and I ended up as head of girls physical education. I was very keen to try and inspire the girls by posting imagery in the changing room. We had a large blank wall, and I thought, well, this is a great place to get some inspiring photos up there. So I searched here, there and everywhere, and found virtually nothing. And what I did find was when in sport shot in a very sexist way. I mean, if you remember the famous Athena poster and the tennis player scratching her bottom, you know, wearing no knickers that that was the kind of thing that was available. So I thought the only way forward, really, is to try and capture some images myself. And I had some very talented kids. I'd got girls getting through to English schools finals in a variety of sports. So I got a camera knowing nothing about photography, knowing a lot about sport, but nothing about photography, learned quite a lot from my husband, who is a climber, and took a camera with him when he was out climbing. So I learned the basics and basically went out there and shot whatever was happening with my girls. I'd got a very good gymnast who was in the British team. I had got girls getting through to the English schools netball final, a lot getting through to English schools. Athletics, doing well at local level, Sheffield level, county level. And you know, your photography improves very rapidly. And in the days of shooting film, you learned very rapidly from your mistakes, because you had to know so much about exposure, so much about accurate focusing. You know, I mean, all that's gone out of the window now with digital photography, but it was a hell of a good training. And when you've made a mistake once, you really don't make that mistake again. So after a while, I thought, well, I could get some publicity for the girls. So I submitted some images, first of all to Sheffield newspapers, and was pleasantly surprised to find one of them on the back page of the sports section. And I got the sports editor in touch saying, Well, you know, this is great. Are you going to English schools finals? Can you shoot all the South Yorkshire athletes that are going there? With the girl who was the gymnast, I was sending some of her images off to specialist gymnastics magazines, the British one, one in America, a World Magazine that was produced in Hungary. And they all came back saying, you know, are you covering this event? Are you going to that event? And things just gradually snowballed to such an extent where it really became a choice between, do I stay in teaching, or do I move out and carry on with what I'm doing? You know, in those days when you taught PE, you almost worked more hours out of school, hours, you know, evenings, lunch times, mornings. Saturday mornings, I was coming home and going straight in the dark room posting stuff off. So in 1980 I decided to leave teaching. I very much wanted to be taken on, either by a newspaper or an agency, because I really didn't know enough about the profession, and could I find somebody to take me on? No, I couldn't. And I was told more than once that they wouldn't employ a woman because they felt a woman didn't know enough about sport, which was, which was a bit ironic, really, wasn't it?
Angela Nicholson 1:48
Yeah.
Eileen Langsley 1:48
But I did pick up quite what was at the time, quite a significant job doing a gymnastics calendar for a Dutch company, and they were great, and they produced a large format calendar. It sounded very well, and they were all so involved in a big figure skating event in Holland, and they got onto me and said, Do you shoot figure skating? And I said, Yeah, I'm glad I have done, you know, but would you like to be the official photographer at the NEA Challenge Cup. And for many years, I would say I ended up working more out of Britain than I did in Britain. Certainly on the continent, people seem to have less of a problem with a woman being a sports photographer. Wow, that's really interesting. So that's, that's really how I how I got into it. Yeah.
Angela Nicholson 6:22
When you were still working as a teacher, but doing the photography, were you actually being paid for any of your photography at that time?
Eileen Langsley 6:29
Yes, I was not always, not always. And I did get a few clients who always thought, well, it's a woman, you know, we can pay her less. And of course, when you're trying to get your foot in the door. It's very tempting to take the offer and not stand there and say, Well, my work's as good as anybody else's Why can't you pay me the going rate? So yes, I did. Yeah, I started working for a little magazine called sports teacher, which, when I was a teacher, we'd got a copy twice a term from that, and the editor got in touch, and he was very supportive. Ken Wheeler wanted me to cover a lot of sport in schools, so that kind of kept my connection with education going. And in those days, teachers were falling over themselves to get in touch and say, Can you come in and photograph what we're doing? You know, it's so great. And we really want to get the word out there that this is the programme we're doing and how effective it is. You know, it's so different from now, when you can hardly get a foot in the door as to school without somebody being extremely suspicious. Yes, yes. So I expanded rapidly in all kinds of ways. And in 1983 I was asked if I would like to become the official photographer for the International Gymnastics Federation.
Angela Nicholson 7:57
Oh, wow.
Eileen Langsley 7:58
Yes, which was a big deal, a big deal because by then I'd got my first Olympic accreditations. I'd done the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. I was heading off to Los Angeles, and what that meant for me was that I was then able to shoot within the podium area, which was in those days was a huge advantage. So I was in there with the TV cameras and maybe one other photographer, and everybody else was on the outside, you know. And that caused some consternation, I have to say, with some of my British colleagues who really didn't know how much work I was doing in gymnastics at the time. And I'd get them quite aggressively, saying, Why are you in there? What do you know? Why are you in there? What have you done to deserve getting in there and so on? So, yeah, I worked for the fig for 20 years, so that involved an awful lot of travelling, and I've worked pretty much all over the world, not in South America, but yeah, pretty much everywhere.
Angela Nicholson 9:03
Wow. How did you get your first Olympic accreditation?
Eileen Langsley 9:09
Well, I tried. I applied in 1980 to go to Moscow, and I was turned down you apply to the British Olympic Association. And I got a reply which was perfectly justified, saying we don't feel you have enough experience, go away, get some credibility, try again in four years. And of course, by the time I got accreditation for Sarajevo, I'd been shooting, figure skating a lot, and speed skating. I'd done a bit of skiing, but I did more at the Olympics, obviously. So I was given accreditation for that, and then for Los Angeles, but last year, when I was in Paris, I mean, I just couldn't really get over how things have changed. There were 1700 photographers accredited in Paris. Well, 1700 photographers. Geographers. When I was in Sarajevo, there were 400
Angela Nicholson 10:03
Wow. And that's across all the sports, of course, isn't it?
Eileen Langsley 10:06
Yes, yeah, it is across all the sports. And I was just staggered because there were people, it almost seemed to me as if they'd applied for accreditation and said, Look, I've got a camera. Can I come? And then more or less said, yes, I'd get some young photographers coming up to me at gymnastics. And one of them said to me, I was shooting apparatus finals, and it was the men's rings. And he said, Well, which way do they shoot? Which way do they compete? And you know, I want to know which way they face. So I said, well, the gymnasts choose which way they want to face. It's up to them, you know. Well, how do I know? How do I find what I said, Well, you have to watch him in warm up, don't you, and remember which one goes which way and all the rest of it. And he said, Well, I've never shot this sport before. And I thought, this is incredible. This guy is at the Olympics, you know. I mean, surely, to goodness, it's losing some professional credibility when you're just letting people in who've no experience behind them, no knowledge, no idea, honestly, of how to work as a good colleague. Yeah. I mean looking back to 84 and how it was then, and how it is now. It was a sobering experience. Shall we say.
Angela Nicholson 11:26
There is an assumption, I think, that photography is literally just about turning up with the camera and popping the right lens on and standing in somewhere that's quite you know, where you've got quite a good view and taking a few shots. But as you've just explained, particularly with sport photography, you need to know about that sport and understand who does what, and you know you might be framing the shot. So it's great when they're hanging from the bar, but when they flip upside down, suddenly they're at the frame. So you've got to anticipate a lot of things, haven't you?
Eileen Langsley 11:53
Well, yes, you do. I mean, that's where I always bless my training in film photography. I look at young people coming in now with these high end digital cameras, sticking the finger on the shutter, and, you know, shooting, God only knows how many frames, and I still shoot as if I've got a roll of film in the camera. And I know in Paris, a guy standing next to me, who I've known for years, he's a good photographer, and he said to me, I can't believe he's still shooting one frame at a time. Yeah. And it's very hard when you've shot for so long with Phil, with action photography, it's very hard to get out of the habit of anticipating, waiting for the moment, you know?
Angela Nicholson 12:41
So do you literally use single shot mode? You're not tempted to go to one of the low frame rates.
Eileen Langsley 12:47
I'll do a short burst on when you get a figure skating doing fast spins. It's very difficult to time when the face is going to come to the front, or if you want the face in profile. So I will shoot a burst, then perhaps sometimes, if a gymnast coming off vault, I might shoot two or three frames of them in the air. But I still prefer to try and anticipate when the face is going to come around. But of course, you see, I coach gymnastics, so I've got that advantage, and I've also got the advantage that when I was at PE College in those days, we had lectures in movement study. And it wasn't particularly going in and looking at people doing sport. It was going into a school and watching children move and, you know, working out their body language and what they're trying to say to you, and it also drifted across into your body language and how you present yourself to a class and gain some authority. And that has been a tremendous help over the years, to be honest. And of course, I played hockey, netball, tennis, cricket, you know, so that's helped enormously. Yeah.
Angela Nicholson 14:00
Yeah. I should think that helps a lot with your image selection as well. I mean, as you say, you don't shoot a huge number, but when you're trying to choose between two frames, and you can see, well, that one, they're not doing it, you know, maybe their foot's slightly out of position, but the next one, it's just perfect. So you recognise that sort of thing.
Eileen Langsley 14:17
You are so right, yes, yes. I mean, even with a fairly high shutter speed, when you hit the moment, let's say of a gymnast doing a split leap, ideally you want them absolutely in 180 degree splits, although you get rhythmic gymnasts who are so supple, they go beyond that. But if you miss the moment, even with a high shutter speed, you can still see a bit of blur on the feet, so that would be something that made me reject that shot or whatever. Yes, yes, you're right.
Angela Nicholson 14:49
How do you prepare for these major events?
Eileen Langsley 14:54
That's a very good question. I don't think I've ever honestly through most of my career. Until the last few years, I haven't had time to prepare. I've bounced from one event to another to another. Yeah, you know, I mean, I've come home, I've been in the dark room, processed the film, printed the prints, posted them off, got on a plane somewhere else. I mean, it was pretty crazy, actually. I mean, somebody was talking to me the other day about the Women's World Cup rugby, the first one in 1991 and talking about, you know, how did you prepare for that? And were you aware how significant it was, and all the rest of it? And I looked at the calendar for 1991 and what event I'd done one day before I left to go to the rugby, and then after the rugby, I'd got two days slotted in the dark room out of somewhere. So honestly, what preparation I would I would look at significant players in any particular sport or in gymnastics. I would probably get the FIG, saying to me, this gymnast from Bulgaria is doing a new move on the high bar. We need a picture of that, so that would be some kind of preparation.
Angela Nicholson 16:12
Yeah. So you'd obviously have to programme in going to see them, so you know what that new move looks like, and what they do just before it.
Eileen Langsley 16:19
Yes, yes. I mean, I spent a lot of time in training, not always shooting, sometimes, just watching, yeah.
Angela Nicholson 16:29
And when you go to an event, say, like the Olympics, the Paris Olympics, you know, you look through all of the sports available. Do you always, are there some favourites? Obviously, you like gymnastics. Do you always? Is that a big tick for you? But are there some others? Think, you know, I've never shot that I'd like that. I'd like to go and give that a go.?
Eileen Langsley 16:49
Yes, yes, there are, and particularly at the Paralympics in Paris this last time, I'd only got a specialist accreditation for gymnastics, so I had no alternative to go to anything else, but at other games. Yes, I have. I've shot as many sports as I could get to why wouldn't you? You know, you've got the top competitors in the world competing in great arenas, and usually with the indoor sports, you could guarantee they'd be really well lit. And of course, that's been a huge influence on indoor sport. How indoor lighting has improved over the years. I mean, sometimes you'd be back in the 80s, you'd be shooting in gloom city, yeah, and the discharge lamps they used at the time used to have awful colour casts that you'd have to use gelatin filters to get rid of. And you know, it was a real colour balance. Was a real challenge. There was no getting the camera to do the white balance automatically for you in those days.
Angela Nicholson 17:48
Yeah. I mean, you had a couple of choices of film, and that was it really tungsten or daylight or black and white.
Eileen Langsley 17:56
Absolutely, I know. And I can remember one bloke saying to me in America. It was World gymnastics, and I walked in and it was obviously tungsten lighting. And he saw me getting tungsten film out and loading it, and he said, Oh, it's not tungsten lighting. It's daylight lighting in here, all indoor lighting is daylight. Eileen asked, and oh, no, it isn't. It isn't. And of course, people are coming out with bright yellow images from that, not me, though, not me.
Angela Nicholson 18:26
No, clearly, not! Are there any events or moments in your career that have really stood out, you know, you sort of, you often think about as being a crucial moment in your career?
Eileen Langsley 18:34
To be honest. No, I mean, I've been privileged to be at so many major events. I mean, obviously I could say, you know, my first ever Olympics, and there when Torvill and Dean won the gold. So that was obviously a huge thing. And then, having spent so much of my career shooting gymnastics, following British gymnastics, particularly, to finally see British gymnasts at Olympic winning gold medals was just incredible. You know, when I think back to the years of the 70s and 80s where you were willing them to stay on the beam and not fall off the pommel horse, um, yeah, it was just terrific. Oh, crumbs, there have been so many moments, actually, to be honest, I've had a fantastic career. A lot of it's been tough, but there's nothing wrong with that, you know, what doesn't kill you and all that.
Angela Nicholson 19:40
Well, yeah, you've obviously seen some amazing, amazing sport, and you know, like you say, Torvill and Dean winning gold. Do you get caught up in the moment as well, with the emotion of it, or do you sort of manage to stay focused?
Eileen Langsley 19:53
Oh, yes, yes, I do. Yeah. I try to, you know, to stay calm. Just focus on what's important here. But yes, inevitably, I do, and as I say, I've shot a lot of sport for the disabled through my career, way back in the days, like with women's sport, when nobody else was shooting it. So to watch the development of the Paralympic Games has been fantastic, because they I can remember London, 2012 walking into the Athletic Stadium, 10 o'clock in the morning for heaps of various para events, and the place was packed. And I thought this, this is just incredible. And yeah, I love shooting para sport, because I think to some extent, they've kept a spirit that mainstream sport has possibly lost because it's got corrupted by so much money, so much TV coverage and sponsorship and all the rest of it.
Angela Nicholson 20:56
Don't know about you, but when I've photographed rugby at the end of the match, I haven't got a clue who's won, because I can't track the score. No, I'm focused. I'm thinking about the photography and watching the players, and you kind of get a sense, I think that that team scored more tries, but I don't really know.
Eileen Langsley 21:12
Yeah, I mean, there are some sports, say, like gymnastics, where watching the scoreboard is really an integral part of what you're doing, because when you've got the top teams competing, and the competition is so close, you need to know, pretty much at the end of each round, which individual or which team have just edged ahead, and have I got enough images of them? Should I be following them? Should I be following that team? I mean, I do hear what you're saying, but there are some sports where the scoarboards can be really quite useful.
Angela Nicholson 21:46
Absolutely. Take a quick photo of that.
Eileen Langsley 21:49
Yeah. And you know, of course, an awful lot of my career was spent working in the Soviet Bloc countries, because back in the late 70s 80s, so many events, gymnastics and figure skating, particularly, were held in the Soviet bloc. And I think the experience of working in those countries at that time has had a profound effect and influence on me and getting to know colleagues who are now still good friends, but at the time, you know, hardly being able to communicate with these people, because there were always KGB or whatever agents hovering around and what have you. And you know, they say, travel broadens the mind. But I think when you're travelling for work and working in countries like that, you can't help but come away with such a huge sense of the privilege we had of living and working where we do, you know.
Angela Nicholson 22:57
Yeah, I think working in a country is vastly different from going on a tour or on holiday.
Eileen Langsley 23:02
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, I had to think on my feet a lot because practically always I was travelling independently, which wasn't always a happy experience, but, yeah, it's, it's had a very profound effect, I think.
Angela Nicholson 23:19
Have you noticed any change in the gender split of the photographers photographing the major events these days? Say, in Paris, did you see more women?
Eileen Langsley 23:29
Oh, yeah, yeah, tonnes of women. And a lot of women working at really, the top level, you know, working for major international agencies. Oh, good grief, yes. I mean, in 1984 how many of us would have been there Crikey? Maybe one or two American women, perhaps the odd German woman, yes. I think Maya was there. Yeah. I mean, interestingly, after a few years of doing international events and meeting up with these other women photographers from all over the world, we set up a little international group to try and promote our work. We call it catchingly, the International Association of Women sports photographers. And it was a group of great women sports photographers, and we got sponsorship from Kodak, produced a nice, glossy brochure. I can't say it had a great deal of effect, but gradually we became more and more accepted. But the early years were tough. They were really tough. I saw very few women photographers from the Soviet bloc, from the communist countries, or from China, that that's changed. I worked in Japan quite a lot. There women photographers had a very tough time to get established, but Paris was a whole new ball game.
Angela Nicholson 24:53
Yeah, that's good to know. Did you find, did you get any support from any unexpected quarters when you first started out? Did some people help you more than you expected, or was it generally a negative experience?
Eileen Langsley 25:07
I suppose, generally I would say it was pretty negative and fairly tough, but right from the start, there were one or two men who were welcoming and supportive. I can remember very early on in the career I hadn't learned to drive by then, and my husband drove me to a national cross country event. It was somewhere up in the north east, and we got there, parked, got out the car, and I was I'd got a camera and what have you. And Jerry picked up my camera bag and walked with me to the gate to get onto the course. And I'm there with my press card and all the rest of it and accreditation confirmed. And the guy opened the gate and let Jerry walked through, and then shut it in my face and said, Oh no, it's only professionals in here. And that was a comment that rang down the years. You know, only professionals can work in here and what have you. And, oh, I mean, I could be beyond measure just going on about the sexist comments, the negative experiences, the times I went home and wept because nobody had spoken to me at an event. But I've got the kind of personality that when I'm opposed it tends to make me dig my heels in and just try even harder, you know, and and just focus on the job. All I ever wanted was to be accepted on the basis of my work and the fact that I was a good colleague, and when I worked for the fig part of my work at gymnastics wasn't just to take photos for them, it was to create good working conditions for photographers. So I spent an awful lot of time liaising with press officers at sports events, and they'd send me maps of the arena and where we're going to put photographers. And I'd say, Oh, well, you can't put them there, because there's a Longines scoreboard. Can we move them here? You know, doing that kind of thing. And in 1988 I'd been working with the press officer for gymnastics for the Seoul Olympic Games. But we, I mean, in those days, you know, there were no emails. It was a pretty slow, laborious process, yeah, and we'd agreed photo positions and all the rest of it. And I got to Seoul and got into the venue, went to the press office, saw the Secretary who was there, who was a woman, and said, Oh, I'm Eileen Langsley, I'm the FIG photographer. I've just come to say hello to the press chief. So she goes off into the office, the door's shut, and she comes out again and said, but he's going to send somebody to talk to you. So I went out in the arena to do some photography, and this young guy came up to me and said, No, the the press offer isn't going to speak to you. You know, why not? Is he busy or whatever? No, he's not going to speak to a woman. He wants to deal with a man.
Angela Nicholson 28:15
Oh dear.
Eileen Langsley 28:15
I said, Well, he's been dealing with a woman for the last six months. And actually, one of the IG executive committee, an Australian guy who was very supportive, went into the office and said, she's our photographer. You talk to her or, you know, whatever, but you know, that's another thing that's changed now, because hardly anybody's working at an event like gymnastics too, make sure that whoever works on the inside doesn't impact the ones on the outside. And Paris was a case in point, because you could hardly count the number of TV cameras in there, not just podium TV cameras and guys with shoulder cams or steady cams, but remote cams, overhead cams, ones going up and down poles. You could hardly get a lens through the forest of all this equipment, and then you'd got about eight pool photographers on the inside. So, you know, you just endlessly blocked these days, and it's quite a challenge. I found Paris challenging to get the kind of imagery I knew I could get and wanted to get, and sometimes we were working three or four deep.
Angela Nicholson 29:33
Wow. Yeah, that's tricky. What advice would you give to women who are interested in becoming professional sports photographers, perhaps they're just starting out.?
Eileen Langsley 29:44
Be 100% confident in your photography. Understand your camera, understand your lenses and understand sport. Don't just wander into an event and expect the camera to do everything for you and. It's all too easy these days, because the cameras are so unbelievably efficient that you can get away with understanding very little about lighting, white balance, focus and so on. I think I would also say, you know, remember that you are not the story. I do see a lot of young photographers who have sounds a bit cruel, but they're a bit full of themselves, as if you know them being out there doing the job with this big lens is what it's all about. When it isn't, is about what's happening out there on the field of play, and you being in the background as the invisible photographer. I've always tried to stay invisible. When I was working at gymnastics, I was always working on my knees. If anybody said they'd seen me at an event, I'd be almost quite offended, really.
Angela Nicholson 30:56
You said, understand your camera lenses and know as much as you can about sport, I think that's good advice.
Eileen Langsley 31:02
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson 31:03
Do you think it's worth applying for the higher level places or, you know, start at grassroots, at your local, you know, whether it's a local football team or rugby club?
Eileen Langsley 31:13
Well, a lot of people start that way. These days. It is very difficult. I honestly don't think I could start my career now the way I did back in 1980, it's very competitive. You've got these huge major agencies who are gobbling up all the major income, and in fact, have photographers worldwide at every event you can think of, and all working in pole position, and that's your competition. I mean, maybe you can find a niche area where you can concentrate and make your mark and become known. It's getting harder and harder. I mean, yeah, seriously, I don't think I could get into the job. I what I did way back when, and work just as a freelance individual woman covering any number of sports and still being able to make a decent living out of it. I mean, I could always afford to replenish my equipment with the next camera body that came out of the next lens. I can't now, I can't now, there's no way I've can make that kind of income out of it. I mean, the other way in is that you get these major agencies interested in you even want to take you on. And agencies like Getty Have they started a sort of scholarship scheme for training women sports photographers. And you know, they've now got women out shooting regularly. I think one of the universities has started up a degree course in sports photography. I think it's one of the Nottingham universities. I'm not sure which one. And you know, agencies will be keeping their eye on people there and who's promising and who's coming up with good work and so on. But it's not easy to break in these days, to be honest. And of course, you know, a lot of people started out working for newspapers, but newspapers now are not employing the number of staff photographers that they used to. They're buying in from the agencies. Yeah, it's quite tough. It's quite tough.
Angela Nicholson 33:29
I know some football teams have their own photographers, don't they now, and they don't just document the games. They kind of everything in the background, the training, the celebrating, the hard work, all sorts.
Eileen Langsley 33:40
Yeah, and they've kind of spread across to taking the women's football team under their umbrella as well. So although some football clubs will perhaps use, say, a woman photographer, to just work in that area, you'll generally find that people have moved across. Yeah, it's interesting to me, after so many years of covering events where there were hardly any photographers interested in women's sport, and now, of course, there's money to be made out of women's sport, so it's a whole different ball game, shall I say?
Angela Nicholson 34:17
Yeah, okay, well, I think that's a good time to go to Six from SheClicks. I've got 10 questions. Well, actually I've got lots of questions, but I've selected 10 questions from SheClickers, and I would like you to answer six of them please by picking numbers from one to 10. So could you give me your first number, please?
Eileen Langsley 34:35
Ahh, number three.
Angela Nicholson 34:37
Number three, how do you prepare for an event to ensure that you're not only going to get the right shot, but you get a shot that is different from the other photographers who are there? And that question is from Carmen.
Eileen Langsley 34:50
Right, well, that will vary with the sports event and what positions are available. If, for instance, we talk about gymnastics, the preparation would be very much watching training, watching significant moves, or significantly artistic leaps, or bits of choreography and a floor exercise, or what have you observing which way has the most impact when you shoot that, if it's a gymnast going over a high bar, for instance, and there's somersaulting in the air, observing which is the exactly right moment when you want the face, and then which angle you need to shoot from, and then negotiating as to whether there's a photography position there To get that angle. Very often there isn't. And maybe you've got to go up in the crowd and shoot from the tribune at ground level. You're going to be looking for the cleanest background. I mean, I learned very early on that clean backgrounds in sports photography are absolutely crucial. There are images obviously, where perhaps the crowd at the back of something happening really make impact with on the picture. But if you're shooting particularly spectacular movements, you want a very clean background. You don't want railings in the background, or poles sticking up, or a TV camera or another photographer even. So it comes down to a lot of negotiation, of observation, assessing what's going to be the best angle, and then working out if you're actually allowed to work on that angle, and if not, where would be a better place to go, and would that particular moment work better from shooting low, and how low can you go?
Angela Nicholson 36:42
Yeah, can I have your second number, please?
Eileen Langsley 36:46
Seven.
Angela Nicholson 36:48
Seven. If you were told you could only photograph one sport, what would it be? That question's from Beverley.
Eileen Langsley 36:55
I think I'd give up sports photography. I would hate to be given that option. I would absolutely hate it. I mean, people have always said, you shoot so much gymnastics that must be your favourite sport. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. I. I love shooting so many sports, and rather than have to choose, I think I would stop. Okay, that's easy to say, isn't it, I'm at the end of my career. So I like sports that change. I get a bit bored. Well, not bored. But, you know, some sports are predictable in terms of sports photography, because you go to Wimbledon and you're always going to get forehands, backhand serves and smashes, and all that's different is who's actually hitting the ball. Yeah, if you're at athletics, you're going to get hurdles, high jump, long jump, all that's different. You know, the action is still the same. What's different is who's going over the hurdle. So sports with fluidity and where you just don't know what's going to come up next. I enjoy shooting because they are a challenge. You know, you can't pre focus on something and think they're going to jump over this or what have you. Yeah. I mean, I came to equestrian photography quite late in my career, but I'd hate not to be able to do that, or not do skating or and what have you. So that is an unanswerable question, I'm afraid, from my perspective.
Angela Nicholson 38:27
Okay, we won't impose the one sport thing then. So could I have your third number, please?
Angela Nicholson 38:36
Nine.
Angela Nicholson 38:37
Number nine, looking back on the early days of your career, what kept you motivated to keep pushing forward in such a male dominated field? And that question is from Olena.
Eileen Langsley 38:49
Right, well, Olena, it was sheer stubbornness and obstinacy, and I believed I had a right to be there. I believed, in due course, that I could shoot as well as my male colleagues. I mean, obviously I had a long period of learning the job and having nobody to help me. I mean, I, in a way, I envied a lot of the younger men coming in, because they'd always got older male colleagues to point them in the right direction at events or help them out with some advice. And I never had that. But I was born into a family with a father who had had one daughter, and was determined he was going to have a boy, and ended up with me, and he made me feel that for pretty much all my childhood and inevitably, inevitably that will have a great influence on your determination to prove that you know you are as good as anybody else. And I wanted, I wanted to do the job I loved doing. A job, and I thought, I'm damned if anybody's going to stop me doing the job. So I guess we're putting a lot of that down to my personality, rather than external circumstances. But the occasional times something good happened, if I won a competition or a male colleague was flattering about my work, or what have you. That kind of thing helped enormously. And when I finally got to know some of the other women internationally, we all knew we had something in common, you know. And that was a big help too.
Angela Nicholson 40:39
Yeah, that does make a difference, I think. And you know, just occasional, like you say, somebody just saying something positive, it just kind of gets you through. And
Eileen Langsley 40:46
Yes,
Angela Nicholson 40:46
encourages, okay,
Eileen Langsley 40:49
Yeah.
Angela Nicholson 40:49
Could I have your fourth number, please?
Eileen Langsley 40:52
Five.
Angela Nicholson 40:53
Number five, five from the many Olympics that you've covered. What is your favourite memory, either from behind the lens, or as an observer of history, that questions from actually, it's from Caroline and Olena, they both asked very similar questions,
Eileen Langsley 41:08
Right, okay, well, that's a tough one to answer, because just being at the Olympics itself is such an important and significant moment in your career, and in my early days, if you were accredited for an Olympics, it was some recognition of your status. So the fact that you'd actually got this thing hanging around your neck that said you deserve to be here. I mean, obviously for me, 1984 Sarajevo been my very first Olympics, and figure skating being one of the major events I was shooting at that, and Torvill and Dean winning the gold medal. I mean, obviously that has to be an all time stand out moment for me, but I could pick out so many the times I've seen competitors in different sports who, for one reason or another, have had a really tough time, either through injury or some other factor, who've then made a comeback and succeeded on the Olympic scene, that's been a tremendous thing to view, watching British gymnast and getting to the top of gymnastics at the Olympics, winning gold medals, bronze medals, silver medals, and it being, you know, expected, not a shock. It was expected that we'd do this. There's been so many but every time I've been to an Olympics, I've felt what a huge privilege it is. And some of them have been terrific, terrific events. I mean, they're enormous things for people to organise.
Angela Nicholson 41:08
Yeah.
Eileen Langsley 41:16
And to be if I'm honest, I think back to 2012 I was a bit doubtful as to whether we should host an Olympics. I was anxious about security and I was anxious about transport, and I got to 2012 and I was absolutely knocked out. It was one of the best Olympics ever. Transport was fantastic. Security, goodness knows what happened behind the scenes, but they were right on top of it. And, you know, you get a huge sense of pride when it's your country that has put this event on and done such a great job with it, and to be in the stadium on Super Saturday.
Angela Nicholson 42:21
Oh, wow, yes.
Eileen Langsley 42:21
Particularly when Jessica Ennis won gold, because she's a local athlete. She's Sheffield.
Angela Nicholson 42:21
Right.
Eileen Langsley 42:21
And I followed her in other athletics events, that was just terrific. And in fact, I can remember avoiding the last race to get in position where we were shooting the medal ceremonies, because there was a limited space for photographers, and I knew if I didn't get to the front, I'd get stuck behind six foot men, and I'd never get a shot of Jessica. So I just ignored the last race and legged it to this little area, and stood there, and I am going to get this picture. And like with Torvill and Dean, I got her absolutely square onto the camera. It was terrific.
Angela Nicholson 44:29
Fabulous. And the whole country was in a good mood for those weeks, wasn't it? It was such a nice thing.
Eileen Langsley 44:35
Oh, it was wonderful. Yeah, yeah.
Angela Nicholson 44:38
Okay. Can I have your fifth number please?
Eileen Langsley 44:40
Number two.
Angela Nicholson 44:41
Number two, your images focus on strength, skills and movement. How do you approach capturing those qualities, especially in sports, where moments can happen in a split second? That question's from Laura.
Eileen Langsley 44:43
That's a very interesting question. I don't beforehand think about, how am I going to capture this movement of strength. I mean, I think if you're aiming to hit peak action, it will automatically happen. I can think of one image I shot of rings, and it was a gymnastics and it was a Chinese gymnast who was going to win the gold medal, and he was facing away from the position that photographers were in, and he did a movement with his arms out horizontally and his legs up towards his face. I mean, it was the most incredibly powerful, strong move. But just shooting that from the back was absolutely perfect, because you could see every muscle group in action and what have you. But with so many other moves, if you're hitting peak action, you're automatically going to be getting the most expressive, the most artistic, the most supple or the most daring move is when you off moment that you're missing all those qualities.
Angela Nicholson 46:07
Okay, so can I have your last number please?
Eileen Langsley 46:10
Eight.
Angela Nicholson 46:11
Are your favourite images of the sport that you have the most technical knowledge of, or are they the ones that you just love? That's from Caitlin.
Eileen Langsley 46:22
Oh, they're the ones I just love. And I just love them because they say exactly everything I want to say about that particular competitor or that moment in a team game. I can't emphasise enough, it's about hitting moments. I can think of some images I took in Paris at rhythmic gymnastics, and most photographers were working at floor level, where most of the positions were and the backgrounds were so messy, I thought they're just going to distract from the fantastic movements that These gymnasts are doing. So I went up two levels, and I was shooting down to get the floor completely as a background. And some of the shots that, some of the moments those gymnasts created, were just incredible. And what I love is if I've actually captured that, and that applies to every sport. I mean, when I was shooting Wimbledon, I can remember sometimes other photographers would be looking at me with a bit of a quizzical expression, because they're all trying to get the shot where the ball hits the racket, and I'm often shooting either before, when the player's running towards the ball, I can think of a shot of Jimmy Connors I got, where he's running across the baseline and you can see the ball coming in, and he's focused on it. And or a player like Monica sellers, who'd got such incredible ground strokes that very often the follow through was, you know, a much more interesting moment. But for me, I just want something that says everything about that competitor, or everything about the way that team are competing and playing and working together.
Angela Nicholson 48:19
So it sounds like it's more about the personalities that are involved, rather than your technical understanding of the sport.
Eileen Langsley 48:28
I don't know, because I wouldn't, wouldn't necessarily say that actually, because some of my significant images have been from insignificant competitors. I mean, I can think of winning a major photo competition of little boys playing mini rugby. No, not the personality, but the moment for me, all always peak action.
Angela Nicholson 48:54
So that that knowing when the peak action is going to happen is basically backed up by your technical understanding of the sport.
Eileen Langsley 49:02
Yeah, yes, I guess it is, yeah. And of course, it's so easy these days. You know, if you want to just stick your finger on the button and keep shooting somewhere in there, you may hit that moment. And who's to put that up on screen and then put mine a shot up on screen and say, which one is the better? You know, a digital camera has done one and somebody picking out the moments done the other. Does that matter? What matters at the end of the day is that the client wants to buy the picture really? Yes, you know, I mean, I like my own to have my own satisfaction out of it. But very often that's not the picture that the client wants. They want all sorts of odd things. It's never ceased to amaze me. Over the years, the images of mine have got published nothing. What else have they published that one? And sometimes it's been as simple as well. We've got a portrait-shaped photo box on that page. So we needed a,
Angela Nicholson 50:03
Yeah.
Eileen Langsley 50:04
we didn't want a landscape. We wanted a portrait. one.
Angela Nicholson 50:07
Rearrange it then. It must be tough. You know, you've got a great landscape orientation image, and you've got one that is okay, but it's...
Eileen Langsley 50:14
Yes, they're paying, you know?
Angela Nicholson 50:16
Yeah, that's the important thing.
Eileen Langsley 50:19
A customer is never wrong. I mean, I've, I've had a nice sort of closing years to my career, because I shifted into self publishing books. And, you know, it is so easy to do it online these days, and you can get really great quality products. And I've loved doing that, and I it's been an absolute delight just to work with my own images the way I want to work with them,
Angela Nicholson 50:48
Yeah.
Eileen Langsley 50:48
whether people want to buy the books or not here there, but, yeah, it's been a good experience.
Angela Nicholson 50:56
But there is something very special about seeing photographs in printed form, and then being able to turn pages through them.
Eileen Langsley 51:04
I know people just scroll through stuff on the phones now, don't they so quickly, and it's saddened me in a way that books have become devalued, but I think it, I think it will turn around in due course. But yeah, yes, yeah, I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing that.
Angela Nicholson 51:24
You've got quite a back catalogue of images to create books with.
Eileen Langsley 51:28
Yes, I have, yes I have, although I have sold my archives. You know, when you're freelance, getting to the end of your career, you've got to think about retire. Well, I don't intend retiring, so that's not relevant, but you've got to think about financial support as you get older. And you know, if you don't sell it on, what's going to happen to it? Is it going to end up in a skip?
Angela Nicholson 51:57
So have you sold the copyright?
Eileen Langsley 52:00
Oh, yes, yeah. I mean, I'm really lucky that the guy who bought my digital archive and my film most of my film archive has and he's, his agency is Pop-aPhoto, and he's a partner agency of Getty Images, but he's been really generous in letting me use whatever images I want within the publications. And you know, when he bought the archive, what he said to me is, you know, I know you're sad about letting it go, but you've got to remember your name will always go with that picture. And that meant a lot, actually. So yeah, a lot of my works now I'm getting images.
Angela Nicholson 52:41
Oh, fantastic. So a whole new audience seeing it?
Eileen Langsley 52:44
Yes, I guess so. Yes, I guess so. It's funny, actually, because he did send me an email recently to tell me that one of my images from Paris that sold for big bucks in America. And I thought, Wow, that's great. And then when I saw which picture it was, I thought, I can't believe it. I have There you go. You never know what the client want, do you? So just go with the flow and and it's not even a particularly clean background, because there's a judge or two in the background, and it had gone up on Getty Images as part of my coverage, and I just couldn't believe that a major American company would have honed in on that particular one. Oh, well, their choice.
Angela Nicholson 53:30
Yeah, they picked one at least.
Angela Nicholson 53:33
Well, Eileen, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It's been absolutely wonderful chatting with you now.
Eileen Langsley 53:38
It's been a pleasure.
Angela Nicholson 53:39
Great. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the SheClicks Women in Photography Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Special, thanks to everyone who sent in a question. You'll find a link to Eileen's website in the show notes. I'll be back with another episode soon. So please subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast platform and tell all your friends and followers about it, you'll also find SheClicks on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, if you search for sheclicksnet. So until next time, enjoy your photography.
