Spotlight on Sam Ruttyn
Winner of the 2020 Nikon-Walkley Award for Sport Photography for “UFC 243”
“I’m ringside or courtside or on the sideline; it’s just taking photos and getting paid to do it and getting to watch the game as well. Couldn’t ask for a better job, really.”
UFC 243: Whittaker vs. Adesanya, took place in Melbourne on October 6, 2019, and drew a crowd of more than 57,000, setting a new world record for the sport.
Sam Ruttyn’s action-packed body of work captures the elation of victory as well as the dejection after defeat. The judges said, “from the splattering blood to the displays of strength, Sam Ruttyn portrayed the drama, emotion and brutality of the UFC, producing an exceptionally detailed collection of images that speak to his knowledge of the sport.”
We spoke to Sam about the drama and theatre of shooting combat sports, and how shooting sport is the best job in the world.
How did you first come to do this series about the UFC?
I’ve always had a long-held passion for combat sports. I boxed myself for a long time, from the age of about 15 to 30, and it’s just something I’ve always been involved with and always interested in, and I combined that with my photography. The UFC have been really good with allowing me access to their athletes. Over the years I’ve travelled overseas with them a couple of times, so I went down to Melbourne to cover the UFC 243.
How much time do you prepare to work on a shoot like this?
There’s not a whole lot of preparation, realistically — you obviously have to be at the event.
“Having an insight into how the sport works is probably the most important thing.”
If I was to go and photograph something like cricket, which I don’t know much about and I’m not that interested in, I’d struggle. I’ve got guys that I work with that love cricket and watch cricket, and they’re great cricket photographers.
I’d like to think that having an insight and knowledge about combat sports, MMA (mixed martial arts), boxing, that kind of stuff, that serves me well in knowing what’s happening. Even some of the exchanges on the floor, with grappling and wrestling.
For the layman who hasn’t followed this sport or trained at all, they wouldn’t understand what was happening. I feel I definitely had an edge on some people, having that sort of firsthand knowledge about the sport.
What are some of the impacts and results that came from the publication of the photos? Do you feel that it had an impact on the sport?
MMA and combat sports — in particular the UFC, which is the biggest MMA organisation in the world — it’s only just becoming mainstream. And a couple of years ago we didn’t report on the sport at all because it was seen as fairly barbaric. Which I can understand; even though I’m a fan, I still look at some aspects of it and I have a love-hate relationship with it.
But essentially, MMA is all the combat sports from the Olympics put together. Judo, boxing, wrestling, stuff like that. To have that in the mainstream media, it’s exciting. I had the UFC ring me up yesterday after the Walkley Award and congratulate me and say, look, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen for them all that often.
What made you want to be a photojournalist in the first place?
I got my first camera for my 18th birthday, and I did work experience at The [Daily] Telegraph when I was 19 and started work there a couple weeks later. There was a great sports photographer — he still is a great sports photographer and a good mate of mine — Phil Hillyard, who I did work experience with for a week.
I loved taking photos, I loved sport and although I don’t do nearly as much sport as I used to five, 10 years ago, I just couldn’t believe that people get paid to go to sporting events that they love and to take photos and have the best seat in the house.
“I’m ringside or courtside or on the sideline; it’s just taking photos and getting paid to do it and getting to watch the game as well. Couldn’t ask for a better job, really.”
Have you always done sports photos?
I’ve been at News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph for 20 years, and I always wanted to be a sports photographer [but] I was behind a long list of really good photographers — Phil Hillyard, Mark Evans, Brett Costello, Greg Porteous.
I went from The Daily Telegraph to The Sunday Telegraph, and I was allowed to pick Saturday sport, that was my gig, so I used to get to shoot the football, AFL, soccer, boxing, whatever it was. I’d get free reign on a Saturday — that was my live sport day. And on a Saturday now, with the number of staff that we have, I’m needed to shoot news in the day, so that particular series of photos is probably the only live sporting event that I’ve shot this year.
What’s your message to Australians about why this work covering UFC is important?
It’s important for people to see these photos from a couple of different angles. One for me is just the sheer excitement of the sport. There was almost 60,000 people in the arena down in Melbourne for UFC 243. It was a world record crowd. And to try and fit all that in still imagery is very difficult. My small series of photos showed elation from the winners, dejection from the losers, the brutality of the sport.
You can have a fight that goes for 15 minutes and you can shoot 2,000 frames, or you can have a fight that goes for 20 seconds and you shoot 20 frames and get nothing. You’re shooting through a cage, which is also hard depending on where you’re positioned. I don’t want to say it’s luck, because it’s not, but there is a certain amount of luck involved. Like the picture of the mouth guard that went flying.
That was during an exchange between these two guys throwing fists at each other’s face and I knew I got something there because I saw the mouth guard go flying but my finger was down and I’m just pedal-to-the-metal, hoping that there’s something good there. And then after the fact, in between rounds, I’m scrolling through my camera and having a look and I see I’ve got this frame where this mouth guard is in the air and there’s blood and sweat and all sorts of other stuff flying through the air.
You try and pair that with the elation of someone that’s just won and they’re screaming, and then the dejection of someone who’s lost and is slumped by the cage surrounded by doctors or trainers or referees.
I think it’s important for the public to see. Although it’s a brutal sport and it’s hard for some people to watch, it’s still a sport. It’s a very physical sport.
