What it’s like to photograph the England football team | Eddie Keogh interview

There are some who might say that Eddie Keogh has the best job in the world. He’s the official photographer for the England football team via Getty Images, which means – yes, he was there as England strode towards what they hoped would be World Cup glory, but was dashed at the last hurdle.

No doubt it was a thrilling, if not gut-wrenching, ride, and Eddie was there to capture every moment. I was lucky enough to catch a few moments to speak with him by phone as he made his way back home from the tournament.

A veteran sports photographer, Eddie has been in the game for more than 40 years, and I was thrilled to catch up with him and hear all about what it’s like to photograph the biggest event in the sporting world…

JS: Thanks for talking with us, Eddie. Well, that must have been a busy one!

EK: This was the biggest event of the summer for me. I had been building up to it for a while – being the official photographer for the England football team is a pretty big deal, so I’ve worked my whole summer around this. 

We hoped to be here for seven and a half weeks – but football is never quite as straightforward as we all think; it’s brutal. You make a couple of mistakes, and you’re done.

But we were there, training literally every day. Every day was as important as the next one. And for me, it’s all about social media now – creating content every day. Everything that happened needed to be photographed. We don’t necessarily put it all out; we have a comms team that will look at everything. Does it serve a purpose? Is it good for the image of the England team? 

JS: This “always-on” quality, having to photograph everything for social media, is that quite different to the way things used to be?

EK: It was a very different world when I first started, a long, long time ago. Lots of changes in the industry over those years for sure. There wasn't the buildup to games – you just photographed the game. There were other challenges of processing negatives, black & white or colour – in my early days I used to process transparencies on the road, which is not an easy thing.

Now, you’re telling the whole story. Travelling, guys getting on the coach, getting on a plane, arriving, walking onto the pitch. Pictures of the dressing room, the stadium. Trying to build up the excitement.

JS: Have you had to learn a lot of new skills? I guess you must be constantly learning.

EK: Without a doubt – you never stop learning on this job. I wouldn’t say the skills are any different, in the sense that you’re photographing what’s happening, telling the story. You’ve got to make it interesting, be a bit more creative – though sometimes it’s straightforward, like “We need a picture of a player walking out the door.”

For instance, pictures of footballers walking onto a plane is a relatively mundane picture, but for some reason, they’re massive hits on our social media!

JS: So what are the kinds of pictures you find most interesting?

EK: The games. You have no idea what’s going to happen. That’s the exciting bit, and it gets better and better through the tournament, because once you’ve made it into the knockout stage there’s proper drama. If you lose, you go home! Simple as that. 

The boys were training every day, pushing themselves to the limit. On the training field and off it – they were eating properly, sleeping properly, making sure they did all the stretching, massage treatment, cold water treatment, doing everything possible to have their mind and body in the best place.. 

The day after our loss to Argentina was difficult, but they had to get their head around playing another game. But they’re professionals, and they had to just get on with it and do it. And what a game to go out on!

JS: Is it difficult to compartmentalise – separate out the part of yourself that cares about the game and focus on the job? I feel like if I were photographing an England penalty shootout, I would find it hard to concentrate.

EK: I must admit, the penalty shootout at the Euros final at Wembley was one of the very rare times when my hands started getting a little bit sweaty. There was so much riding on it. 

And then obviously you’re so gutted for the players. I feel I have to tell the story – Bukayo Saka missed the penalty, and I had an emotional image of Luke Shaw consoling him. I didn’t want to take that picture, but it’s my job. I’m not going to go up in their faces with a wide lens – I show a bit of discretion, but I still tell the story.

It was much the same with this tournament. We were in the dumps about losing to Argentina. You know, no team wants to be there. They just want to go home and see their family. But the story needed to be told, and nearly all of them used those emotional images on their personal Instagram platforms.

JS: What do you think you enjoy most about the job, what keeps you hooked on it?

EK: Always wanting to get a great picture. That drives you a lot. And it’s a rare thing these days – I’ve been in the game a long time now, you take lots of pictures, but it’s generally only one or two a year that you’re really happy with. And that’s out of literally hundreds of thousands of frames. I suppose with age you get fussier about what is and isn’t a really good picture. I’m more self-critical. 

But I still enjoy taking a nice image, when it all comes together. And the competition! I really enjoy sitting there with my fellow photographers, and it’s all happening, and we’re all trying to get the best picture. You don’t want to miss something.

JS: Do you compare afterwards – is there a general sense of who got the best one?

EK: It’ll be whoever’s picture got used on social media a lot, or got onto the back page of the newspapers. It’s what we call “dangle by the angle” – it depends on where you’re sitting along that line, you might get a view of the guy scoring, or the header or the overhead kick, whereas someone who’s literally five metres away from you doesn’t.

JS: Do any particular moments or pictures of yours spring to mind as ones you’re particularly proud of, or that you think of especially fondly?

EK: I mean, the Mexico match was really special to me, because it was 40 years on from my last game at the Azteca Stadium in 1986 with the famous ‘Hand of God’ moment, working my first World Cup following England. 

I recreated a photo I’d taken all those years ago. The original was me, Bobby Robson and Peter Beardsley; and this time it was with Thomas Tuchel and Jordan Henderson. People loved that when I shared it on Instagram. 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by @england photographer and @canonuk Ambassador (@eddiekeoghphotos)

So, that’s not of the game itself, but it was pretty big for me, you know. And the match itself was incredible. Going down to 10 men and still winning made it a really special night. It catapulted us onwards and upwards – definitely a very good night, big celebrations.

Because I’m the team photographer, I can get on the pitch after the game to shoot the celebrations. The Oasis song ‘Wonderwall’ became our celebration song with the fans, so it made for a great set of images.

My wife thought it was hilarious seeing all the videos of me scurrying around from behind the players and running into the goal, where I knelt down to get head-on shots of the team singing the song. But the real reason I positioned myself in the goal was so that I wasn’t getting in the way of all the other photographers who were shooting from either side of the goal.

See more of Eddie’s work on Eddie’s Instagrams @eddiekeoghphotos, @sundayleaguephotos and keep up with his work with the England football team on Instagram, @england.

About the Author

Jon Stapley is a London-based freelance writer and journalist who covers photography, art and technology. When not writing about cameras, Jon is a keen photographer who captures the world using his Olympus XA2. His creativity extends to works of fiction and other creative writing, all of which can be found on his website www.jonstapley.com