Since the moment I picked up a camera I was transfixed by moving subjects. The idea of capturing the action captured all of my creative attention. The only problem? No one looked like me. I never had anyone to look up to in the sports world. The players on the TV were men, the coaches behind the bench were men, so were the support staff and the broadcasters’ voices; sporting industries are a raging field of testosterone. But when I was first dreaming of where me and my camera would go, it wasn’t something that I paid any mind to until I wrote up a list of my sports photography idols, and I very quickly realized that I was on my own.
Maybe part of setting out on this project was to ease my own mind, that I’m not all alone after all. It’s an intimidating thing, being the only woman in a media room full of men, being asked why you want to dedicate your life to this craft: “It’s just for the hot guys right?” “Which one do you have a crush on?” These are questions that I’ve been asked by family, by coworkers, by strangers behind me in a stadium. Questions that follow me everywhere, and no honest answer is enough.
So, I gathered women from all across the province, who were working in this field. To prove that maybe I’m not so alone after all. From the elementary school phys-ed teacher, to the social media coordinator for an NHL team, to the first female Keeper of the Stanley Cup, there are women working in these industries, we just don’t see them. This project has inspired me to be the person that I didn’t see growing up, and to maybe make it on to some young photographer’s list of idols so that they know that they will be welcomed into the community with open arms, and not have to question whether or not they deserve their place there.
Morgan Harris is a sports photographer who is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography Media Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University. Morgan’s ability to capture the moving subject, to create visually dynamic action shots, and to shoot striking portraits of individual athletes, has led her to be appointed Team Photographer for the University of Ottawa’s Men’s Volleyball Team, as well as a resident photographer with the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.