You have certainly already seen several of his photos, which have immortalized Belgian football for almost twenty years. Bruno Fahy, photographer for Belga, releases his Arrêts de jeux by Editions Chronica.
Bruno Fahy is one of those names that everyone working in football knows, but that the general public may not know… when in fact he has already been exposed to his work, and rather twice only one. And for good reason: Bruno has been photographing Belgian football, whether it is our clubs or the Red Devils, since 2005 now. This Tuesday, he published Stoppages in Playhis first work, published by Chronica Editions.
“I started photography in 1993, and I arrived at Belga in 2005. This book therefore celebrates my 20th career. But it was not me who thought of it first: it was the publisher who contacted me almost two years ago now,” he explains to us. He, at first, is not convinced: “I told myself that football photography did not necessarily interest people, especially outside of football.”
However, it is the “football audience” that he targets as a priority… but not only: “The best compliments are when someone tells me that they don’t follow football, but that he likes my photo and it makes him want to watch football”, rejoices Bruno. “At the beginning, I was going for a 100% photo book, without text, but I said to myself that it would look a bit like an Instagram gallery (laughs). I was afraid of boring the reader. So my publisher offered me to work with David De Myttenaere, with whom I spoke ten times, who collected my stories and put them to music”.
This Stoppage of Play is also peppered with texts written by some well-known players in the world of football. Thomas Meunier wrote the preface. “We have been good friends since he arrived in Bruges. I covered the club and as French speakers we became close. It turns out I knew his wife’s father, who I had photographed when he played in Éghezée I sent him these photos and one thing led to another, we went to Disneyland together, I took photos of his wedding, to which I was invited,” smiles Bruno Fahy.
“He immediately agreed to do my preface. But others are more surprising to me. When I see that De Bruyne comments on the photo of his goal against Brazil and says that I understood his emotion well… Witsel and Preud’homme also wrote quite long texts. All of this makes for a fairly fluid and interesting work,” said the photographer. This also allows us to highlight the work of the photographer, by definition often in the shadows.
A job often in the shadows
“It’s true that our signatures are never highlighted and that can be frustrating. Sports photography is also seen as less noble, and I was starting to think so too,” admits Bruno. “I don’t consider myself an artist, I do informational photography. And the objective is not to put myself in the spotlight, I also do it for all my fellow photographers.”
However, photographers, like the players, also have to work hard for 90 minutes – and in reality much more, if you count the preparation and post-match – during each match. Sometimes in complicated conditions: “I remember the deluge at Wembley recently during England-Belgium… I had to dry my equipment with a hairdryer after the match. But beyond the weather, there sometimes has danger with objects and pyrotechnics thrown onto the field.”
Pyro which can also give rise to beautiful images, and Bruno Fahy knows it. “I would just tell the fans to stop throwing smoke bombs (laughs). I’m lucky to have never been injured, but I already have cables that melted due to 300° pyrotechnic devices on my equipment… But you shouldn’t be hypocritical: pyrotechnics sometimes give rise to superb photos and there are some in my book.”
KDB-Lukaku, the wink of Eden to the king…
If a photo has had enormous importance in the career of Bruno Fahy, it is certainly that of the celebration of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne after the first’s goal assisted by the second, in 2014, during Belgium-USA. “She opened doors for me, and almost everyone saw her. People talk to me about it often,” he admits.
“There are others, of course. Eden Hazard’s nod to the king, I am also very happy with it. The photo of Marc Wilmots on his return from Croatia after qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, I am also proud of others, in spite of myself, like that of Vormer’s hand in the rectangle, which is important from a “journalistic” point of view and marked the Standarmen (laughs).”
But Bruno Fahy concludes with humility: “There is a big element of luck in this work. For example, at the World Cup, we do not always decide where we are stationed and we cannot move during a match. If Lukaku and De Bruyne celebrates elsewhere, I don’t have this photo (laughs) Colleagues took this photo from a less good angle… Anyway, my favorite photo, I hope it’s a photo that I don’t have. haven’t done yet, as I often say. The passion is still there, for football, for photography, and for football photography. I hope to do the same between KDB and Lukaku in 2026!
“Play Stoppages”, Editions Chronica. Bruno Fahy, preface by Thomas Meunier: found here.
