If you’ve seen any MMA or boxing photo as of late, it may have very well been taken by Esther Lin. Residing in California, Lin has travelled the world taking photos of combat sports for MMAfighting and Showtime Networks. Her work has been published in UFC Magazine, Fight! Magazine, and USA Today. Originally graduating from UCLA’s Film and Television school, Lin is now considered one of the best fight photographers today.
Khang Nguyen: What made you want to get into photography?
Esther Lin: Real human life stories. Stories in general. Maybe I felt like I didn’t have too many stories of my own to tell yet. I’ve always liked documentaries. Throughout college when I watched films and analysed them I just found myself drawn to the documentary format. I love fiction films too, I love all films – I’m kind of a snob about it.
KN: So, how did you end up taking photos of people punching and kicking each other?
EL: It never really interested me before at all, until I started going to live fights. My first live fight, I went to a ‘smoker’ in a gym here in California. I fell in love with it. I thought, “This is awesome, this is so great.” The very first day I brought my camera, I actually walked home with a handful of good images. It was better than I had been doing at other things. I was more instantly connected to it. I’ve been shooting music for a long time and it was OK, but the first fight I came out with good photos so I thought that I should probably be doing this. It was awesome.
KN: What was the first big promotion you shot for?
EL: When Elite XC came around my fiancé got hired to do a pilot for them. I worked for them doing graphics and I would bring my camera to the fights and then I realized I was good at that so I decided to pursue that. When Elite XC went down, I was out of work for almost a year. During that year I went to local fights and tried to hone my craft. I went to as many fights as I could. Here in Southern California there are a lot of fights here – almost every weekend. I just did that every weekend and I sold individual images to magazines and stuff.
KN: When did you get your big break?
EL: When I got Strikeforce to notice me. I went to one of their events and Ken Hershman, who was the Vice-President of Showtime Sports at the time, saw my blog and he asked Strikeforce to hire me. That was where my formal work began. Before that I was just doing piecemeal work. I worked for Strikeforce for a couple of years, and a couple of years into that Ariel Helwani met me and noticed my work and asked me if I wanted to work for AOL Fanhouse. AOL Fanhouse sold us to SBNation and we become MMAfighting.com.
KN: Where are you currently working?
EL: There’s not really too many full time jobs for photographers. I split my time between MMAFighting and Showtime Sports. But I also work for Invicta, but they only have a couple of shows a year.
KN: Who has been your favourite MMA fighter to work with?
EL: Everyone is really great. Most MMA fighters are all really nice people. I think because they’re not yet very famous. Not yet as wealthy as some other athletes so they are generally very humble and easy to work with. Carlos Condit is one of the nicest people. Most of the guys at Greg Jackson’s camp are very friendly and humble. Jon Jones is kind of weird, but everyone knows that.
KN: What are some of your favourite shots?
EL: My absolute favourite, and this is so ridiculous because it happened such a long time ago, is Cris Cyborg punching Gina Carano so hard her face turned around. This was like August 2009. It was my favourite picture. I remember when I took this photo, the guy who was ingesting the photos ran towards me and he said, “Oh my god! You just got the craziest picture.” I never look at the photos. I take the photo and generally I don’t look at the camera to see if the photo came out or not.
KN: You take a lot of portraits, and a lot action shots too, but what is your favourite environment to shoot in?
EL: Because I come from a documentary background I prefer hanging out with someone for a couple of days. When I got to hang out with Daniel Cormier and follow him weight cutting, that’s something I liked a lot. That was something that I felt was closest to something I wanted to do. I got to just be there and hopefully be there long enough that he forgot I was there. That’s my goal – I want to be there long enough for people to forget that I’m in the room.
KN: Usually fighters are pretty cranky during weight cuts. How did you get DC to give you the access to follow him around?
EL: I know Daniel Cormier from Strikeforce and I’ve shot every single one of his fights. I was there for his pro debut and because I know him so well, he afforded me this access. I don’t know him on a personal level, but I’ve worked with him for so many years he felt he could allow me to do this.
KN: Do you find it easier to take photos of a fighter if you know them better?
EL: Knowing a fighter better allows me to take better photos. This is something I learned from a photographer I follow named Clayton Cubitt. He says you should know something about your subject before you take a photo of them because that’s the only way to get a good photo of them, and it’s true. It’s really hard to get a hard intimate portrait or tell someone’s story without knowing them.
KN: Any advice for young photo journalists looking to get into the business?
EL: Tell a good story and be professional. The story is the main thing. People get caught up in equipment and this and that, but nothing is more important than telling a good story and using the appropriate equipment for that story and that doesn’t always mean the most expensive thing or whatever.
This interview has been edited and condensed
