Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea - Matthias Hangst, Getty Images Chief Photographer based in Germany: “I am proud to be part of the Getty Images team covering the Winter Games. We have a staff of over 80 here in PyeongChang and some of us been on the ground for many weeks to get everything in place.
I arrived a week ago and my job started immediately. Our basic mission during the first few days is to check out our venues, make sure that everything is in place and first of all: to start taking photos! We go out to have a look for the best position, to get a feeling for light situations and to make sure that we all know the challenges of each venue we will cover.
Many setups change last minute and it takes a while to get used to the tracks, routes or the media bus transportation system. It's a real challenge to be an “organizer” and to find the freedom to work on preview shots. Some of them will be unique, because photo positions during competition are limited. So the athletes preparation and training are also an excellent opportunity to play around a bit, and allow for more freedom to be creative.
During competition much comes down to moments, the journalistic stories and also the challenges to deliver our photos to clients within under a minute from some of the important medal moments”.
