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Many distinctive photographers captured jaw-dropping pictures of world-class athletes performing unimaginable feats on the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. In most instances, these photographers used the anticipated tools, the newest full-frame mirrorless cameras and telephoto lenses. However, a choose group of Getty Images photographers took a really totally different strategy, and documented the Winter Olympics with thermal, infrared, and classic movie cameras, and utilizing distinctive processing methods.
Getty Images photographers Pauline Ballet of France, Ryan Pierse from Australia, and Mexican photographer Hector Vivas headed to northern Italy armed with thermal cameras, infrared cameras, and even a 1956 Graflex digital camera, paying homage to the final time the Winter Games have been in Cortina, Italy.
The trio of inventive photographers launched into particular tasks. “Back to the Future” utilized classic Graflex cameras that photographers would have used again in 1956. “Infrared,” as its identify suggests, is a collection of pictures taken on infrared cameras through the Olympics. These have been shot on modified mirrorless cameras. The “Winter Heat” collection was captured utilizing thermal cameras to point out the warmth of the athletes and the crowds in stark distinction to the snow and ice that almost all Winter Olympics occasions happen on.
There was additionally “Layers of the Games,” by which photographer Hector Vivas used fixed-position cameras and lots of exposures to point out the drama of a whole recreation or occasion in a single body. Finally, “Olympic Projections” was a particular Getty Images initiative that projected photographs from the video games as they occurred on the important thing structure and landscapes of Milan, Cortina, and the encompassing areas.
PetaPixel spoke to Matthias Hangst, Director of Sports Content, EMEA & APAC, Getty Images, and Paul Gilham, Getty Images’ Senior Director of Global Sports Content, to study extra in regards to the experimental imaging methods Getty Images photographers utilized in Milan Cortina.
“About 12 to 18 months out from Paris 2024, Matthias and I got together and asked ourselves how we could repicture the Olympic Games and bring something different to our coverage, to show that we think in different creative ways, as well as the ways that we’re well known for,” Gilham tells PetaPixel. “We talked about what brought us to photography in the first place — being drawn to a creative, expressive art form. We ended up in sports because we love sports, but there is a lot to the genre of photography, and we wanted to explore how we could bring something different to our coverage.”
Hangst and Gilham selected a bunch of photographers they knew have been inventive of their photographic strategy and elegance, and challenged them to provide you with contemporary, distinctive methods to {photograph} the Winter Olympics, in contrast to something that had been finished earlier than.
“They were given creative free rein,” Gilham says.
That stated, there have been tasks from Paris 2024 that Getty Images needed to proceed in Milan Cortina, together with Vivas’ “Layers of the Games.”
“The thermal imaging idea, which came from Pauline Ballet, was one where we saw a real opportunity to show almost the invisible side of the Games, especially with the extremities of temperature that you experience at the Winter Olympics,” Gilham explains. “Overall, our approach was to take the various influences from our love of photography and bring them into our day-to-day environment at the Games — we wanted to show how the beauty and artistry of photography can come into the world of sport.”
“We had been developing the idea for quite some time,” Hangst provides. “But Paris was the right time and place. We wanted to prove that we could execute these ideas on the highest level, in the Olympics or any other major event, and not just on a lower scale.”
“We went all in, and the risk paid off.”
However, as Hangst provides, crucial factor is that the photographers take pleasure in it, and so they completely did.
“It’s a great way of expressing creativity, different to what we do on a day-by-day basis.”
“The number one thing that we’re trying to achieve here is to show something different,” Gilham says. “What’s unique about our team is that they are industry-leading sports specialist photographers who know their sports inside out. They put a lot of time and energy into researching and understanding them.”
“When it comes to the big moments, they use their expertise and their experience to make sure that they’re in the right place. They’re able to marry the two — creative expression and faithful capture — quite naturally. The fact that they’re using these alternative technologies to do it brings something different.”
“We chose some of the best sports photographers and gave them the freedom to express themselves in a different way,” provides Hangst. “It’s not just a piece of art. It’s a piece of art at the right moment.”
Unlike the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina have been unfold out. Beyond Milan and Cortina, occasions occurred in different cities and cities all through northern Italy. This pressured Getty Images to unfold its group of photographers throughout many areas, which comes with its personal logistical challenges.
It additionally meant that every photographer, positioned in several areas, needed to work on a number of inventive tasks directly.
“The creative projects team includes Pauline Ballet, Hector Vivas and Ryan Pierse. Each photographer has to have access to infrared, the Graflex vintage camera, all of the different technical pieces of equipment, and has to be trained in how to create the Layers of the Games imagery,” says Gilham.
As for which mission Gilham thinks was the most important success, he says it was the Graflex classic digital camera.
“Shooting content in a way similar to what would have been used the last time Cortina held the games in 1956, while being able to distribute that content in real time, has been really exciting to see.”
“From a purely technical aspect, we are working with devices that had very limited testing in winter environments ahead of these Games. Infrared, thermal, all of these devices show a certain reaction to light, snow, and contrast. We tested what we could, but once you’re out on a snowy mountain with harsh sunshine, or covering ski jumping under a floodlight at night, the camera is going to react differently,” Hangst provides.
There was additionally no clear structure day-to-day. Each photographer needed to be versatile and able to shift gears at a second’s discover.
“They all have a toolkit to express themselves, but when they arrive at a venue, they have to decide what is the best option to tell a story that day based on the condition,” says Hangst.
The gifted photographers, Ballet, Vivas, and Pierse, all know their means round trendy cameras and routinely use them with excessive success. Their expertise are immense, and so they work in tandem with their photographic instruments to get the very best photographs potential.
However, there isn’t any query that trendy mirrorless cameras include many options and features that make it simpler for them to convey their inventive visions to life. The autofocus know-how and velocity of recent cameras make them very highly effective instruments for sports activities photographers.
The thermal, infrared, and classic cameras the trio utilized in Milan, Cortina, and different areas lack all these trendy facilities. Thermal cameras, for instance, should not designed to {photograph} shifting objects in any respect. They are gradual, sluggish, and troublesome to make use of. A classic Graflex, after all, is even slower.
The cameras most carefully associated to the standard professional sports activities photographer’s package have been the infrared cameras, which have been high-end mirrorless cameras modified for infrared images. Even nonetheless, these cameras demand particular filters and have totally different calls for for lighting circumstances.
“I didn’t expect any of the results I’ve seen since we got here. Something happens in the infrared process that creates something I’ve never seen before. That’s the most impressive bit for me, along with the editorial integrity that goes into capturing these images,” says Hangst.
“You could give a digital artist any photo from the Olympics and they could Photoshop a similar effect, but our photographers are pre-visualizing within the limitations of these different forms of imaging. In a way, it encapsulates what Getty Images does best: there is integrity to our imagery because it is all created in-camera.”
The classic Graflex cameras are some of the attention-grabbing instruments Ballet, Vivas, and Pierse had in Italy.
“We’re all drawn to photography because it crystallizes a moment in time. There are certain visual styles that evoke a sense of nostalgia, and those styles are a direct result of the photographic technology that was used. That’s the beauty of the Graflex: the way it captures the images,” Gilham tells PetaPixel.
“It has this very vintage, very old feel — you look at the imagery we create using it and it immediately takes you back. It doesn’t look like it was captured today; it looks like it was captured years ago, which brings a kind of timeless element to it that you just don’t get through the really clean digital photography that we see nowadays.”
It was additionally a means for the Getty Images group to honor images’s wealthy historical past, which Getty has been a part of because the very starting. Gilham says that for this inventive mission in Milan Cortina, the group dug by Getty’s wealthy archives for inspiration.
The photographers have been “very keen to bring that kind of archival aspect of their modern work. It brings real connection and excitement to show that this camera technology is still usable and relevant today.”
For Hangst, he loves that the Graflex digital camera brings “a little bit of imperfection in a perfect world.”
“There’s something quite special about that.”
To be sure that this old-school workflow nonetheless labored right now, in 2026, the group developed a strategy to connect a smartphone to the Graflex digital camera and use that to seize pictures.
“From the very beginning, the idea was to connect the past and the future, the 1956 Olympics with the 2026 Olympics,” Hangst says. “The answer was right in our hands: we had the Graflex, and then we had, latest device of this generation: a mobile phone.”
“Layers of the Games” was a smash hit for the 2024 Summer Olympics and returned for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The last pictures are created by compositing many layers, all captured by a single digital camera in a hard and fast location.
“The objective is to capture a moment or a day within a particular event, then bring all of those elements together in one image to tell a story — whether that’s a sequence of a snowboarder along the half pipe, or figure skaters at various points of peak action in their routines. The idea is that every time someone looks at the image, they find a new detail and get consumed by that part of the story. It’s bringing together a multitude of moments exactly as they unfolded,” Gilham explains.
The modifying course of could be fairly complicated and take a number of hours per shot. The photographers themselves retain full management over the edit, and they’re those who determine which frames to incorporate within the layering course of and which of them to omit, guaranteeing that they get the proper mixture of motion composed in a visually pleasing means that also authentically captures the story of the occasion.
“The goal of the composition is to feel the whole field of play. You need to find a moment of action in exactly one place of the field to fill that corner; we’re not moving figures around like pieces of a puzzle. And it needs to be interesting. It needs to be a moment that you want to show,” Hangst provides.
This could be fairly the endeavor, with days or perhaps weeks to create the ultimate composite, however Getty’s photographers typically do it reside to allow them to ship the ultimate frames that very same day, or in some instances, the day after an occasion.
“It requires a certain skill set to be able to do this level of work under such a tight deadline,” Hangst says.
Sports are particular. For the numerous hundreds of thousands worldwide who tuned into the Winter Olympics this month, they get it. There is one thing outstanding about an athlete who has educated for a few years, standing atop the rostrum. It’s the end result of a lifetime of arduous work and dedication.
For Getty’s photographers, their job is to seize all that emotion in particular person frames and inform a narrative in a thousandth of a second.
“Sports photography is so powerful because so many of us relate to sport; you have a connection to it, whether as a fan, or a competitor, or maybe there’s a sport you just really love,” Gilham says. “The best sports imagery is captured by photographers who absolutely know their subject inside out, who can anticipate where the action’s going to be, but also have a deep understanding of how to use light and background to enhance an image.”
“When you bring together those technical elements with peak moments and action, you create something truly special that can really sing to an audience.”
For Hangst, sports activities images is about that singular second.
“You can’t plan for it. You spend years waiting for the peak moment, and then you have to execute in that one split second,” Hangst tells PetaPixel.
“If everything comes together, there are those rare images where if you could go back, you’d do it exactly the same. You couldn’t do it better.”
Image credit: Getty Images. Photographs by Pauline Ballet, Hector Vivas, and Ryan Pierse.
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