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Evan Farrell from Vicksburg to photograph national championship game through CFP intern initiative
Published at 4:00 am on Saturday, January 4, 2025
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Evan Farrell transports his photography equipment at a football game this season. The recent graduate from Warren Central has been chosen as one of 20 emerging photographers across the country to capture images at the College Football Playoff national championship game, under the CFP’s media intern program. (Photo courtesy of Evan Farrell)
Vicksburg local Evan Farrell navigates the sideline while capturing photos at Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this season. (Photo courtesy of Evan Farrell)
Warren Central football players and coaches gather for a photo together after the May 2024 premiere of the documentary “11 Brothers: The Movie,” which examines Warren Central’s 2023 football season. Evan Farrell, a student from Warren Central, filmed, produced, and edited the documentary as a school project. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)
This snapshot by Vicksburg native Evan Farrell illustrates two Warren Central baseball players celebrating during a game last season. Farrell, a recent Warren Central graduate, was chosen by the College Football Playoff to photograph its national championship game as part of its media intern initiative. (Photo courtesy of Evan Farrell)
This image by Vicksburg native Evan Farrell captures the atmosphere following Ole Miss’ triumph over Georgia at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in November. (Photo courtesy of Evan Farrell)
This picture by Evan Farrell captures the atmosphere following Ole Miss’ triumph over Georgia at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in November. (Photo courtesy of Evan Farrell)
By Paul Ingram
Special to The Vicksburg Post
By Paul Ingram
Special to The Vicksburg Post
Evan Farrell is a firm believer in seizing opportunities.
Numerous opportunities.
And on January 20, he will traverse throughout Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta as one of the 20 media interns chosen from across the nation by the College Football Playoff to document the National Championship Game through his photography.
Evan, a 17-year-old resident of Vicksburg and the offspring of Mattand Alley Farrell, is a 2024 autumn-semester alumnus of Warren Central High School. He will commence classes at Ole Miss this winter as a journalism major, which will only be part of a hectic January.
Having attended Vicksburg Catholic School, Evan’s entrance into the realm of sports photography commenced after he changed to the Vicksburg Warren School District and sought to forge new friendships.
The COVID pandemic in the spring of 2020 enforced remote learning and impeded his chances of connecting with peers. Consequently, he entered his freshman year at Warren Central with renewed determination to cultivate new friendships by joining the golf team and, while enrolled in a media class, asserted “I can capture images” — despite having never before handled a professional-quality camera.
This led to a media pass for the Warren Central-Brandon football match, where, with his mother’s Nikon D-3000 and a zoom lens, he documented the game and subsequently uploaded the photos to TikTok to “observe the reaction.”
What ensued was over three million “views” and 700,000 “likes.”
He interpreted that as a sign. After a similar response to images from the remaining games, he procured his own camera and lenses.
In February 2023, Evan decided to photograph an Ole Miss-LSU basketball match. Lacking press credentials or connections, he smuggled his camera into the arena concealed within pom-poms, fabricating a narrative of being a high school sports photographer (which was true) conducting a follow-up shoot of a student now playing for Ole Miss (mostly accurate).
He received access, capturing shots from the ends of the court and networking with staff and professional photographers. This established his connection with Ole Miss Athletics.
“Those photos elevated my status as a sports photographer,” Evan recalls.
In the fall of 2023, Evan was granted credentials for three Ole Miss football matches, strengthening his rapport with Ole Miss student athletes. They began to follow him on social media, sharing his work.
While this was fulfilling, Evan yearned to investigate other avenues and began studying ESPN and NFL sports documentaries.
With his own documentary conceived, he commenced filming Warren Central football, honing his skills as the season evolved, learning how to configure his camera, optimal locations on the field, and which moments needed to be immortalized.
The outcome was over 500 hours of footage, in addition to player interviews. The film editing stage necessitated organizing his image files, along with game footage, interviews, and radio broadcast audio, all stored on his workstation’s 20-terabyte hard drive and edited using movie-making software.
Aligning specific play image files with corresponding broadcast audio and player interviews proved to be laborious and time-intensive. For three months during spring 2024, Evan refined his film, frequently into the early hours — all while balancing school and commitments to the golf team.
“I had set a deadline of May 21 for the presentation, but I needed to edit more games. It was a rush, but we completed it,” Farrell said.
His documentary, titled “11 Brothers: The Movie,” is a tribute to Warren Central football. It premiered with tremendous excitement on the giant video screen of the school stadium to an audience of approximately 500, with features by WLBT-TV and The Vicksburg Post.
“I hoped this project would inspire the next generation of high school students to become creators,” Farrell said. “And now, there may be eight kids on the sidelines taking photos, so that’s positive.”
“It was all the major names in sports photography, like the AP and Getty Images. And me. I think they might have mistakenly mixed up the process and issued my credentials before realizing the error,” Farrell stated. “I had an incredible experience. The fans stormed the field! Friends informed me later, ‘But Ole Miss lost.’ Hey! I had the chance to attend a night game at Death Valley and photograph it. Nothing could surpass that!”
This year, as the Ole Miss vs. Georgia game in Oxford approached, Evan was determined to photograph it.
“MSScoreboard, a sports media organization based in Jackson, contacted me for freelance opportunities,” Farrell explained. “I offered to capture the Georgia game for them, and due to a conflict on their part, I received credentials. It was surreal. I learned what not to do when a field gets rushed! I went to the center of the field for the coaches’ handshake. Huge mistake. It was like a mosh pit, it was pouring, it was chaotic, and I was trapped.”
That game established Evan’s relationship with MSScoreboard, for whom he’s covered other statewide events such as the MAIS football championship — again, all while being a student at Warren Central.
Aiming to progress further, this past fall Evan reached out to NFL teams for credentials, but his age (as a 17-year-old minor), along with a probable degree of league bureaucracy led to denials. While recovering from that disappointment, he received an unexpected call from the College Football Playoff representatives expressing admiration for his work due to his effective online presence.
Farrell was invited to cover the forthcoming national championship game in Atlanta on Jan. 20 as part of a select group of 20 young photographers, writers, graphic designers, and videographers from across the United States.
“It’s a privilege not just to represent Vicksburg, but essentially the entire state of Mississippi, at such a remarkable event,” Farrell expressed.
He’s likely among the youngest included in the group of 20 and anticipates that his work during that game will unlock further opportunities.
To prepare for the National Championship game, Evan has studied schematics and models of Mercedes-Benz Stadium to identify vantage points and routes. Unlike most college games where photographers have designated areas, he will have access to the entire venue.
As he begins classes at Ole Miss in a couple of weeks, Evan is uncertain how he’ll integrate into the university’s sports photography program, but he hopes that his portfolio will soon grant him access to venues where he can realize his full potential.
He will also continue shooting for MSScoreboard by documenting college and high school games in northern Mississippi.
And his unfulfilled NFL ambition?
“Mark my words: 2025 will be my year to photograph a professional football game,” he declared. “I’m unsure how to secure credentials just yet. I’m persistent. I’ll find a way.”
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