MARCO WATSON
Munich, Germany
Hello my name is Marco Watson. I'm a 34 year old photographer from Munich, Germany.
My relationship with football started in my early childhood. I was fortunate enough to have a father who was a fanatical football supporter and he used to take me to football matches when I was still a small child. As far as I can remember these early matches, I was more fascinated by the crowd than the players on the pitch. I loved the smell of cigarettes, grilled sausages and watching the crowd go crazy when our defender slide-tackled Lothar Matthäus. My love of the game has fortunately never declined and I still attend every game of my favourite team, TSV 1860 Munich. They have been unsuccessful for many years now but the magical appeal which surrounds this club is somehow more important than the sporting success.
The transition to working as a photographer is quite easily explained. As a child I had already started experimenting with disposable cameras. Back in 1994 there were hardly any digital cameras and the disposable ones could be bought quite cheaply at the local drugstore. After school, at the age of 16, I started an apprenticeship at a consumer electronics store and there I was able to witness at first hand the change from analogue to digital photography and this was also where I bought my own, very first, digital SLR camera. Since that time I've learned how to handle exposure, apertures, ISO and to work with different lenses. After a few years of using digital I got bored with shooting gigabytes full of trash and only managing to get off a few good shots, so I got myself a cheap 35mm camera on eBay and started taking it with me to football matches.
Shooting film at a football match is a special challenge and, at the same time, a relief. On the one hand you want to try and capture the perfect moment – when the crowd explodes or a player rushes past you. On the other hand you don't have the option of taking five or more shots of one special motif, because you sometimes only have a single film in your camera and you need to save some shots for the rest of the 90 minutes.
In my case, probably the most important reason why I still shoot film, is the time while you're waiting for the undeveloped film to develop. When you see the images which you were waiting for finally emerge. Apart from the 'gear acquisition syndrome', which has infected nearly every one of my analogue photographer friends, this is really what I value most of about shooting film.
