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The West Orange (Essex County) resident, who moved to the area from Minnesota with her husband 12 years ago, has captured some of the most iconic moments at the Paris Olympics 2024 for Getty Images since the games began last month.
Garrison covered her first Olympic games as an editor at Nagano 1998. She covered her first Olympic games as a photographer at Torino 2006. She's also worked at London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020/2021 and Beijing 2022.
Daily Voice sat down with Garrison (well, we had her answer some questions because, you know, time difference and working in Paris). Here's what she had to say:
What attracted you to sports photography? How did you break into the industry?
EG: I took a photography class my freshman year of high school and fell in love with medium. Back in those days it was film, and the cameras were manual exposure and manual focus. I loved the technical aspect of it. I shot for the school paper and the yearbook – all throughout high school. Some of my friends played sports and through photography, I was able to share that experience with them. I loved the challenge of capturing peak action and getting it sharp.
Every match, game or event is different and that is what I love about it.
I could have 5 baseball games in a row and they are all going to be different in some way. It keeps it interesting.
When I was a sophomore in high school, there was a mentorship program at my school that paired students with professionals in careers they were interested in pursuing. I was paired with our local newspaper photographer, Steve Kohls, who works at the Brainerd Daily Dispatch. He taught me what it was to be a visual journalist and from there I was all in. I attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism degree.
Internships are very important and I was fortunate to land one at a sport magazine called "The Sporting News." That was my real first taste of travel and sport photography and I knew from that point on, this is what I was meant to do. After graduating college, I landed a job at Allsport – a sport photo agency that was later acquired by Getty Images. I started in Los Angeles in 1996.
What are the greatest challenges that come with sports photography?
There is a lot of problem solving with sports photography. Every venue is different. Access can be difficult depending on the city or the venue. There is a lot of equipment to carry. The hours are long and you often work nights, weekends and holidays. It can impact your social life, but you have to prioritize the people in your life that are important, and weigh those with the events you are working.
It is a delicate balance. It is grueling and focused work. If you are not paying attention, you could miss a big moment so I am always engaged.
It can get mentally draining but at the end of the day, my greatest joy is being able to capture those moments and document sports history.
Which stories are you the most proud of so far this year?
I had a bit of a busy summer before the Olympics! I covered the NBA and NHL finals in the home cities (Boston and Florida) and they were back-to-back days. I was proud that I was able to come away with storytelling images while slightly exhausted with travel.
Did you ever see yourself here? What is your advice for other aspiring sports photographers/photojournalists?
As sport photographers, we always live for the big events. I think once I got into the industry, I took every assignment I could to better my skill set. I went to workshops with season sport photographers to learn from them. In college I assisted several "Sports Illustrated" photographers and watched how they worked, what lenses they used.
My advice is to keep pushing yourself.
Doing research before a match will help prepare you to capture those moments. Be a nice person, you never know what someone is going through and also if you are a freelance photographer, being easy to work with will get you more assignments.
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