When you think of famous athletes, who’s the first person that comes to mind?
Statistically speaking, if you thought of an athlete from three out of the five major sports leagues — the NBA, WNBA, or the NFL, they were probably a Black man.
It’s not magic—according to data collated and published by GZERO, that’s just the reality of racial diversity amongst professional players in sports today.
It’s not a secret that most major league teams have a diverse roster of players and it’s hardly a testament to equitable talent scouting or hiring practices.
According to a New York Time article headline published in December 2020, the real problem is the racial disparity at the executive level; the headline reads, “In 30 Years, Little Progress for U.S. Sports Leagues on Leadership Diversity.”
The general sentiment from the data is this: team owners, coaches, managers, creative marketers, and media teams that build the fandoms behind your favorite teams are still all predominantly white men.
According to a 2021 report published by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES,) which examined the racial and gender hiring practices of over 100 newspapers and websites (and excluded photographers, oddly enough), the data shows that sports media has a lot of work to do to address the unfair imbalances of power present in their newsrooms.
Summating the discomfort and harm this causes, ESPN wrote, “These are the same outlets that determine what stories to cover, when to cover them and how they are portrayed. Diversity, equity and inclusion among the staff in our media is crucial to news being representative of our society.”
In 2022, this reality still exists in sports and sports media rooms, but thankfully there are a few courageous women challenging the sports industry gatekeepers.
Becoming A Legend
One of those women is Amanda Cain—The San Jose Sharks Team Photographer and The National Hockey League’s first Black female team photographer.
How did she get her start in the photography industry? As a childhood sports fan who missed her chance to go pro, her passion for the game slowly transformed into a fruitful career as she explored documenting sports teams in her community. Hear her origin story in this 90-second clip:
When she got to The San Jose Sharks eight months ago, the first thing she started strategizing around was how she would apply her artsy style of photography to the fast-paced game of ice hockey.
Aside from being the only Black female on the ice, how does she differentiate herself from the other sports photographers in the arena?
- By literally shifting her perspective: She says, “I don’t ever want to look at something like how someone else looks at it,” so she often moves to the opposite side of the arena to shoot the action from an unexpected angle. It might be inconvenient to some, but it’s worth it to make her work stand out.
- Getting up close and personal: “What I also bring is the portrait aspect of it—the candids, in the locker room, the pre-warm ups, the arrival shots—all of it,” and within all of her work (including her non-sports photography,) you can see how she captures the depth and range of human emotions.
The San Jose Sharks Game Day Content Workflow
What’s the actual process for how she gets her images from rinkside to the marketing team and then to your social feeds in under five minutes? It all happens in five simple steps.
Listen to Amanda briefly explain how her team’s smart tech tools allow seamless access and sharing of approved photos and video footage during the games:
Words of Wisdom From A Fellow Creative
It’s always humbling to hear accomplished professionals admit what areas they want to work on and improve.
Amanda shared that the perseverance in the game itself has taught her a lot about having patience with herself as an artist and creative. While she sometimes misses the action, she makes up for it by documenting the emotions around those missed moments. In sports and in life, it’s the hustle and the humble willingness to learn from your mistakes that count.
And on that note, here are some wise words from Amanda that we’ll be reflecting on now until the rest of time: “A season not going the way it should, does not mean you should ever stop working hard,” Amanda said.
Up Next
Read motivational messages from professional female photographers here or watch this candid conversation we had with three women who lead visual storytelling strategies for beloved brands — Callena Williams, The Dallas Cowboys Team Photographer, Cydney Scott, Boston University Campus Photographer, and Director of Photography for Sports Illustrated, Marguerite Schropp-Lucarelli.
