Levon Biss:
Capturing the Beautiful Game
In a unique assignment, photographer Levon Biss recently took Apple’s Aperture software into the field to capture the global reach of football.
What do the following places have in common? The Kremlin by night, dusty African townships, snow covered Peruvian mountains and Hackney Marshes? They’re all places where people play football, and they’re all places visited by London-based photographer and Aperture devotee Levon Biss during an 11-month mission to capture football culture around the world.
Armed with a Canon 1Ds Mark II digital camera and a 17-inch PowerBook loaded with Apple’s Aperture software, he visited 26 countries on six different continents as part of the Umbro-sponsored ‘onelove’ project.
“I don’t consider myself the most technical person in the world. My priority is creating the actual picture, but I know the tools are there in Aperture should I need them — and they’re simple to use.”
The project’s aim was to document football on a global scale — not the glamorous side of the sport, but the game as it’s experienced by ordinary people all over the world. Biss says: “We wanted to show football not as an industry but as a culture — that means everything from the guy selling hot dogs in the stadium to the actual players on the pitch. I wasn’t limited to a certain country or level of the game”.
Why football? Because, according to Biss, it’s the only true global game. He says: “Football links diverse people all over the world. I’ve seen Amazonian Indians play it, small kids in the mountains of Peru, people here on playing fields in London — these are very diverse cultures that share this one thing”.
Biss gathered images over an 11-month period and the result is a touring exhibition that will be seen by millions of people all over the world, as well as a 400-page coffee table book that’s sold 38,000 copies in its first two months.
Such a high profile campaign demands the highest quality product, so how do you guarantee quality when you’re out in the field for the best part of a year? Biss says: “onelove coincided with the launch of Aperture in the UK and Apple said: ‘Why don’t you give it a try?’ After the first few goes, it revolutionised the way I managed my digital workflow”.
He adds: “I’d used other programs before, but I found they didn’t have the speed or the usability of Aperture. It did everything I needed it to do and, most importantly, it did it in the field”.
Aperture’s reputation for high levels of control with RAW files has been built up largely in the studio. So, how would it fair in the deserts of Namibia or 3,500 metres above sea level in Peru? Biss says: “Shooting reportage means you can’t always control what you’re going to get. Aperture introduces another level of control because you can work on RAW files in a portable environment — for me, that’s fantastic”.
Previously, when out in the field, Biss would download his images as he went along, then go through the material on his return to the UK. Now, because he can work on images in situ, he saves time — and he can also make sure he’s got the right shot. He says: “The ability to check the shots on location means I can see what I’ve got and what I haven’t, so that I can actually go back and get what I need right there and then”.
“When you leave on a trip, you’re not just taking your cameras and itinerary, it’s like taking your whole studio with you — your darkroom and lightbox and everything. As a result, you’re much freer to get the pictures you want”.
