I have spent the last 35 years as a full time sports photographer.
I am extremely pleased to have been given the prestige of being appointed the Sports Photography Ambassador for Nikon Australia in 2009, and also formally inducted as a founding member of the World Photography Academy in 2008.
My agency Sportshoot was founded in 1987. I consider myself privileged to have photographed every Summer Olympic Games since 1996, every Commonwealth Games since 1994, the Football World Cup in 2006 and 2010, and more recently, the Winter Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games in 2018. I have photographed an unprecedented Nine Olympic Games, yet I am best known for my work in Swimming and Triathlon.
My work is featured prominently in current promotional campaigns for companies as diverse as the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organising Committee, Coles, Meat and Livestock Australia, Elastoplast, IGA, Casio GShock, Rebel Sports, Oakley, Gatorade, Kelloggs, Asics, Speedo, Sydney Olympic Park and the Bradman Foundation.
I'm personally commissioned as the Official Photographer to Swimming Australia, Triathlon Australia, Rowing Australia, Softball Australia, the NSW Mens and Womens Cricket Team, Canoe/Kayak Australia, ITU World Championship Triathlon Series, NutriGrain Surf Ironman Series, the Rugby World Cup Organising Committee, & the Singapore Marathon.
You need to understand what’s missing when you take a photo. Your eyes are just one part. All your five senses must move. The five senses are body, feeling, perception, intention, and consciousness. We need to take these things into consideration when taking a photograph. Although it is merely progress towards a goal… the very action of progressing with the greatest passion, with the greatest energy, is a kind of enlightenment.
“They say that a photograph is a witness, but a witness of something that is no more. It’s a moment of this subject’s existence that was photographed, and this moment is now gone. Each viewing of a photo - and there are billions worldwide in a day - each perception and reading of a photo is implicitly a contract with what has ceased to exist.”
— Delly Carr
At the moment my D6 and the D850 are my favourite pieces of Nikon equipment by a mile. I have said it before, Nikon cameras are light years ahead of anything else that exist in the digital world. The colour resolution and low light performance as digital cameras are outstanding.
The D850’s files have to be seen to be believed. So as a sports photographer I now have the tools to do the job, I can learn to be happy in the process, therefore allowing me to put good energy into the photograph. Photography is about respecting all the variables that have been put in front of you.
When preparing to launch the D850, we challenged Nikon Ambassador Delly Carr to capture the image of his lifetime. Right before the shoot, Delly suffered an ischemic stroke. He was unable pick up his camera. After three months of recovery he was able to return to the set for the toughest challenge yet, to prove himself yet again and capture the image of his lifetime.
This is Delly’s story.
“During my photo 'inactivity' in March and April, this creative project came to mind.
I photographed these after talking to a few athlete friends when Tokyo was postponed. I quickly realised that Athletes Are Not OK. They kept telling me how their family friends and the general public didn't quite get what the postponement of Tokyo meant to them. There was heartbreak and heavy sadness. The decision really hurt them in so many different ways. Whilst they realise they are not above and beyond everyone else in society, their world of sport lies smashed in tiny pieces right now.
The reactions during the shoot were tears, anger, disappointment, disillusionment.
They were super honest with me. They trusted me.”
“I took on this project because I believed in their message and I am on their side. I have so much empathy, the photographic world is pretty much in the same uncertain situation.”
— Delly Carr
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