40th AOP Photography Awards Finalist, 2025

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I am over the moon to be a Finalist in the 40th AOP Photographer Awards, Sports category. It’s a rare thing to have your personal project recognised by your peers, especially when it sits outside the usual visual ideals of its genre. So, I’m thrilled that my ongoing photo series with British boxer Vivien Parsons has been selected as a Finalist in the 40th AOP Awards, in the highly competitive Sport category. What makes this recognition meaningful is not just the nomination itself, it’s what kind of work was chosen. This isn’t flashy, high-drama, big-light-scheme sport imagery. It’s a natural photographic study in honesty, emotion, and becoming.

Vivien Parsons: A Future in Three Words – Work in Progress

Vivien is an emerging British boxer with her sights set on the Olympic Games. I’ve been photographing her across several stages of her training and development, capturing not just what she does in the ring, but who she is becoming along the way. At one point, I asked her: “If you had to choose three words to define your legacy, what would they be?” She said: “Integrity, perseverance, and fun.”Those three words became emotional coordinates for the whole project, anchoring the imagery in something deeper than just performance. Like a what3words map for her mindset, they ground her sense of self as she moves through pressure, pain, ambition, and identity. This series rejects the classic boxing imagery, no dramatic backlights, no posed punches. I shoot with natural light, muted tones, and a stripped-back approach. I want to show what happens between the big moments. The sweat, the breath, the long pauses between sets. The silence in the changing room. The expression that flickers across her face when no one’s watching. These moments reveal more about character than any staged knockout shot ever could. They show the real toll, the real drive, the reality of a young woman chasing something big and doing it her way.

Shooting Fast, Loose, and Present

Every shoot challenges me to trust the moment. I lean into intuitive composition, atmospheric lighting, and perspectives that might feel ‘technically imperfect’ but are emotionally true. I experiment, using mirrors, layered reflections, half-blurred frames. I give up control so I can gain connection. This process pushes me as much as it pushes Vivien. We’re both in motion. Both works in progress. And that’s part of what I love about this project, it’s never about the final frame. It’s about the energy in any given moment. Let’s be honest, AI can fake a perfect boxing shot now. It can generate images that look like sport. But it can’t feel what it’s like to be there. It can’t anticipate the shift in emotion just before a bell. It can’t read the room, sense the fragility, earn the trust, or respond in real time. That’s where the value of human photography lies now more than ever. In the truth of it. In the unpredictability. In the energy that flows when you let people be people and trust your instinct over an algorithm.

The AOP Awards are a benchmark in the photography industry, so to have this kind of work recognised is deeply affirming. It tells me there’s space in sport photography for something more emotional, more thoughtful, and more human. It shows that how you see is as important as what you see. And that there’s a hunger for work that doesn’t just look good but feels real. In a time where AI imagery is saturating the web, originality matters more than ever. As photographers, our value isn’t just in how we shoot, it’s in how we see. The decisions we make in real time, the connections we nurture, the trust we build, the truth we’re willing to wait for. That’s what gives the work its voice. And when it comes to photographing athletes, especially emerging women in sport, that truth matters. Their stories deserve to be seen with dignity, complexity and creativity. So yes, this is a work in progress. But it’s also a celebration of what happens when you let the camera follow feeling rather than formula. Where there’s space for imperfection, there’s room for something real to emerge.

 For Commissioners Looking for More Than Action

If you're commissioning photography that needs to go beyond the surface, if you need work that balances atmosphere with authenticity, style with story, I’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re representing a sports brand, publication, or wellness-focused business, my approach is rooted in connection, emotion, and intuitive energy. I don't just document people, I collaborate with them. I hold space for their truth, and I create work that lets their story breathe.

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