Among the many photographs from this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris, Geoff Lowe stood out with his composite sequential images, reminiscent of motion studies by the early pioneers of photography or the works of Italian Futurists from the early 20th century. The artist himself admits being inspired by film, music, and extreme sports such as skateboarding and BMX. Post-production plays a key role in his works. His images capture athletes’ performances moment by moment, and sometimes he combines all the competitors into a single photo, as if they were performing simultaneously, or creates a multi-angle view of an athlete. According to Lowe, he doesn’t just photograph athletes in motion, but the very soul of the competition itself.
The Path to Professional Photography
Geoff Lowe began both sports and photography in childhood, and he planned to pursue both in the future. He dreamed of competing in the Olympics as an athlete and becoming a photographer for the American sports magazine Sports Illustrated after his athletic career. However, his path took a different direction. The turning point came in 2017, when he attended the World Athletics Championships in London as a spectator, and watching the sports photographers on the track made him long to be in their place. At the beginning of 2018, he attended his first sporting event as an accredited photographer at the British Indoor Athletics Championships. Interest in his photographs began to grow after the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019, where he published a composite shot of pole vaulters.
Inspired by Music and Skateboarding
Geoff Lowe drew his inspiration for his work from sports, film, and music: "When I was growing up, I always visually loved basketball and skateboarding. I liked how art and music were such a big part of this culture, how the three passions could be combined. At that time, I didn’t see anything like that in the world of athletics," he says. "I started creating sequential composite shots, which I often saw in extreme sports like skateboarding or BMX, as well as in music videos and films, but I did them for athletics: sprints, high jump, or long jump." He often published his photos along with the music he listened to while shooting or during the editing process.
Paris Olympics
"Since the beginning of 2022, I had been trying to get accreditation for Paris through the British Olympic team, and I was immediately put on a waiting list," Geoff Lowe describes his journey to this year’s Olympics. At the start of 2024, his participation still seemed uncertain. "At the last moment, I decided to photograph the indoor athletics events in Paris in February. Something told me that if I wanted to be in Paris in the summer, I had to be at the athletics events. Soon after, I received a message from the Paris 2024 team saying they liked my photos and asked if we could do something together for the Olympic Games, but for all sports. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for. And exactly what I had dreamed of."
Photography as Art
Geoffrey Lowe gained more attention this summer at the Olympics, where he fully developed his method of creating digitally stitched and composited photographs into a single image. Examples include long jumpers captured on one frame at the same moment after landing, table tennis players jointly watching a falling ball, or pole vaulters creating a circle as they jump over the bar. His shots are not only documentary in nature but also highly artistic.
The photographer arranges athletes into aesthetic structures and symmetrical patterns. For instance, in his photograph of gymnasts where all of them are performing on one endless beam, the stadium setting is reduced to a black background, which almost removes the sport's atmosphere and invites viewers to look at the work as a piece of art.
"A camera allows you to play with time and reality, and that's what I do. What makes a great sports photograph is the moment, the emotion, and the composition. The photo must make you look deeper," Lowe believes.
Geoff Lowe thoroughly enjoyed the fact that at the Olympics, he could photograph all sports without any specific assignment. "No rules or particular athletes or countries to focus on. Just sport. The atmosphere was incredible; I visited two, sometimes even three different venues daily. (...) All the days blurred into one, and time was measured by the various sports I was photographing and the shots I was posting. I photographed many sports for the first time, and I was very honored and grateful for the opportunity to gain my first experiences and witness how the absolute world elite performs," he describes his fresh experience.
Key Photography and Moments
For Geoff Lowe, powerful moments from this year's Olympics included, for example, the failure of American heptathlete Chari Hawkins, who didn't score any points in the high jump, or Matthew Hudson-Smith embracing his father after narrowly missing out on a gold medal in the 400m.
"The most genuine emotional release I've ever seen. Truly a beautiful moment," the photographer admits. One of his favorite events was equestrian, partly due to the location where the competitions were held. It was on this course that he created a composite photograph made from the largest number of images, which he believes contributed to his popularity. "Initially, I wanted to use 100 horses, but after hours and hours of editing, until around 4 in the morning, I had to stop at 70/71 because it was time for the next event. I was thrilled to send the photo to the Paris 2024 team and share it with the world. I believe that this was the image that captured attention for the rest of the games," he acknowledges.
