"Self-taught and innovative leading sports photographer who, both nationally and internationally, enhances the greatest moments of sports through idiosyncratic imagery and different angles."
This is the motivation from the Swedish Sports Journalists Association jury.
I was very surprised when Lars Granqvist, the chairman of the jury, called me because I knew beforehand that no other photographer had won the award, says Joel Marklund.
In the industry, he is known for his technical and innovative solutions. These include cameras in hockey goals, photos taken with the foot while the eyes look in another direction, and angles few others think of.
That's my style. Taking those different pictures when you work with light and lines in a way that elevates the sports image to not only be documentary but also artistic, he says.
When someone says: “Wow, how did we take that picture?” it feels like you've succeeded.
One such image – which won the 2023 Sports Picture of the Year International award – is from the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Then he put a camera in a water pit on a 3,000-meter obstacle course.
I had been working on that angle for several years, but it hadn't really worked out, he says and continues:
So I kept testing this angle and finally at the World Athletics Championships it paid off. The sun was setting beautifully, there were perfect colors and perfect shapes on all the active people running and jumping above. Everything fell into place there.
2025: Joel Marklund, Bildbyrån.
2024: Susanna Nygren, freelance.
2023: Johan Esk, Dagens Nyheter.
2022: Patrik Brenning, Aftonbladet.
2021: Joel Segerdahl, Discovery.
