"Show me the 'personal side of a hero'! "
If you want to capture the dynamics of a cyclist at 60 km/h, you have to learn to understand that it is not about 'freezing' the movement, but 'capturing' it. There are very good colleagues in the triathlon scene, such as Ingo Kutsche and his team, Michael Rauschendorfer, who unfortunately died much too early, or the British James Mitchell. With Marie Wichmann, we now have another very promising alternative when it comes to depicting the 'moving moments' of this extraordinarily versatile sport.
"As a media company, our service consists of recording and publishing events or contexts in words, videos or photos.
In doing so, we depend on interesting stories and first and foremost on first-class photos that effectively illustrate these stories and arouse curiosity about the content," says Sabine Huetter, Senior Photographer at Montefuego Media Services, describing the demanding requirements profile for photojournalists.
Expressive images are not a matter of luck, but should be the rule for professional photographers.
That's why we mostly rely on established and experienced photographers who know their craft and where we know that they can capture and document the core of a story in a split second.
Every now and then, however, there is also the opportunity to give young, aspiring rookies the chance to prove themselves under real operating conditions and in real time. "These are exciting moments for us, as well as for the respective rookie, who at some point receives his first official 'accreditation' and officially belongs to it," recalls Sabine Huetter, who has been working for Montefuego Media Services in the field of sports photography for more than 20 years and has been present at the Nascar races in Daytona (Florida) as well as at the legendary 'Night Race' in Schladming (Austria) or the 'Red Bull Air Race' (Hungary).
"A successful sports photo is like a well-told joke, it lives from the 'punch line'." - Sabine Huetter
It is important that you don't just photograph what happens, but that you develop a feeling for the actual story, says the Austrian-born photographer, who has lived on Lanzarote for many years. A successful sports photo is like a well-told joke, it lives from the 'punch line'. The moment when all the tension is released.
"If you don't develop a feeling for this, you will deliver 'nice photos', of which you can at best say that they are technically okay, but hardly convey this momentum to make it special," says Huetter about the minimum requirements in professional photojournalism.
Marie Wichmann, a 27-year-old photographer from near Schwerin, has now successfully passed this 'baptism of fire' in Veneto. After her first attempts in September at the Ironman competitions in Poznan (Poland) and Dresden, she got her first chance to earn her own laurels with her official accreditation at Ironman 70.3 Venice.
Her assignment for the competition: "Show us the most personal side of a hero" - So it was not about the typical competition photos during running or cycling, but about the small, seemingly inconspicuous moments that were to find space and viewing time here. The aim of such a task is to sharpen the photographer's perception and to shift the focus from the obvious to the quiet and rather unobserved actions.
"Marie, who is currently in the middle of her psychology studies, has shown an incredible flair for precisely these 'quiet moments' and has delivered even under pressure," Sabine Huetter was pleased to say when reviewing the photographic material.
"Especially the photos taken during the check-in show not only photographic know-how but also a good feeling for the respective moment." It is certainly an advantage that Marie herself is active in sports as a triathlete and thus knows from her own experience which moments are significant, but that is by no means a guarantee that these moments will also be captured so impressively.
Text: Chris Ernst