Sport is no longer just about being seen, it must be felt. This is precisely the terrain on which Getty Images has chosen to advance in the run-up to Milano Cortina 2026. The agency, a world reference in sports imagery, is undertaking in-depth work on how to tell the story of performance. Behind this reflection, a conviction: the historical codes of action photography, as powerful as they are, are no longer enough to convey the complexity of contemporary sport.
Under the leadership of Matthias Hangst, director of sports content EMEA and APAC, a small collective of photographers was mobilized for several months to experiment with new visual approaches. Seven creative projects emerged from this collaboration, mixing emerging technologies and a return to older techniques. An assumed hybridization, which reflects a desire to push the limits of the medium while retaining its documentary roots.
A new writing of performance
One of the major axes of this work is based on the exploration of dimensions invisible to the naked eye. Thermal photography, for example, can capture the heat released by athletes in extreme environments. During a biathlon race, bodies stand out from the ambient cold, revealing the intensity of the effort beyond the sporting gesture. This type of image is no longer content to freeze a moment, it tells of a physiology, a tension, an energy expenditure.
Another avenue explored: infrared. By modifying the cameras’ sensors, photographers manage to transform light, snow or even the sky into almost abstract graphic elements. The image gains in narrative density, without losing readability. The performance remains identifiable, but it is enriched with a new, more immersive aesthetic dimension.
Getty Images also pushes the logic of narration further by working on temporality. Thanks to digital compositing, certain images assemble several moments of the same event into a single composition. The spectator no longer watches a decisive moment, but a complete sequence, condensed in the same frame. A way of translating the rhythm, repetition and intensity of a discipline.
Between innovation and heritage
Although technology occupies a central place, it is not the only lever for transformation. The agency also calls for a return to basics. Some projects were thus carried out with vintage cameras, inspired by those used during the Cortina Games in 1956. Slow focusing, anticipation of the gesture, visual imperfections: so many constraints which force photographers to rethink their practice.
This dialogue between past and present structures the entire approach. The images produced do not seek to break with the history of sports photography, but to extend it. They maintain a strong requirement for authenticity, while integrating new layers of reading. For marketing and content players, the message is clear: innovation does not lie only in technology, but in the ability to renew the outlook.
Today, images circulate in continuous flow, everywhere and all the time. In this context, the difference is no longer based on quantity, but on the look. Getty Images is no longer limited to producing visuals: the agency seeks to impose a signature, a way of telling the story of sport. An orientation that meets the expectations of broadcasters and brands, who are increasingly attentive to content capable of leaving a trace, beyond the simple moment captured.
Alain Jouve
PakarPBN
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