My Winning Shot - Jaime Massieu Marcos
Jaime Massieu Marcos is one of the many deserved winners from this year’s Sony World Photography Awards. His extraordinary photo, Suspended Animation, won the Split-Second open category, and we wanted to know how he managed to capture such a fast-moving moment.
The photo was taken in Madrid’s Plaza de Colón during the FIBA Basketball World Cup. FIBA had organised for the area to be home to all the sponsors outside the stadiums, and Jaime was there working for the 17th day in a row. It was a week after his birthday and he was miles away from his home making “crappy videos” for various companies.
While Jaime was sitting around waiting to start filming, he noticed a group of basketball acrobats from a company called the FACE TEAM - think of them as the eastern european Harlem Globetrotters - showing off their moves “The winning shot needed to be done with a zoom lens.The day before they did something similar and I took pictures with a 16-35 [wide-angle lens]. I thought I should have taken my 70-200 lens with me, but that morning I fell asleep and forgot it.
“Luckily there was a very cool guy who wanted to take pictures with my 16-35, and so he lent me his 70-200. Incredible luck. Once I had the 70-200 I spent approximately 3 minutes in the same position, glimpsing with my left eye to see when the next acrobat was about to jump.”
The shot that Jaime ended up with is spectacular; the acrobat contorting in mid-air as though gravity has decided to no longer serve its purpose.
“I remember I went back to work and showed the picture to all the staff, and they were all like ‘wow, how is that possible!?’. Then I met the acrobat the next night at a concert and showed him the picture, and even he was impressed. That was when I knew the picture was good: when the guy was admiring how I captured him after being photographed by so many others.”
Jaime seems to have a knack for capturing blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. The two photos above are also his own - one from the El Sol nightclub in Madrid and another shot from the Plaza de Cólon - but none of them compare to his winning Sony World Photography Awards entry. “I took some others just in case, but I was lucky as the best [shot] was the second I took. I had to give back the 70-200 lens to the other photographer - I would’ve cried gallons of tears if the picture had been out of focus or something!”
Jaime’s photo is currently on display at Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition. The exhibition runs until May 10 – head to the WPO site to purchase tickets.
