Martin Bissig

Swiss outdoor action photographer Martin Bissig has used his love of mountain biking to his advantage, and become one of the world's most prolific shooters of the sport.

Martin's career has been driven by his three great passions: photography, mountain biking and the great outdoors. Encouraged by his father, a freelance photographer who shot for a range of newspapers, photography was the first passion to take hold. Eager to learn, Martin began experimenting with cameras from the age of seven, making the most of his father's equipment and their home darkroom. At 13 he was covering assignments when his father was busy on other jobs. Around this time Martin began mountain biking, the ideal sport for a teenager growing up in one of the world's most mountainous and scenic countries.

To begin with, alongside shooting intermittently for a handful of magazines, Martin supported his dreams of becoming a professional photographer with a variety of more traditional jobs. But after impressing a significant corporate client in 2003, photography ceased to be a hobby. Martin has since shot for a range of clients, including Red Bull, Scott, Adidas, Oakley, Specialized and Deuter. His images have appeared in countless magazines internationally, and he is considered to be one of the most published mountain bike photographers in the world. "I typically publish about three stories a year," Martin says. "Each gets published between 10 and 20 times, so I usually end up in about 50 different publications all over the world, in more than 25 countries. Each publication holds between four and eight pages, plus the cover, so I'm extremely fortunate to have had tonnes of my pictures published."

Martin believes that being a keen mountain biker himself has helped to make his work stand out. "I love mountain biking," he says. "In photography, to be good at what you do, you have to take pictures of things you like. If I was to shoot people playing snooker, or riding horses, it wouldn't work as well. As a sports photographer, it's important that you know, and love, the sport yourself, because you need to know how people move and what looks right. I never planned to make a living this way, it was just a nice combination of all the things I love the most. As long as something is fun, you can do it forever. Of course, money needs to come in, but if money is your only motivation you will fail. I've learnt that if you keep doing what you love, eventually you'll become good enough to make money from it. It can take a lot of time and rejections, but it's totally worth it in the end. The places I've travelled, the things I've seen, the adventures I've had… I do stuff most people would love to do. I'm so glad I decided to follow my dreams."

How do you execute your creative vision for a mountain bike shoot?

"Generally, I have just an idea of a country I want to visit, or an area I want to go. Once there, I'll go with the flow. I don't have specific ideas or images I want to capture. I let myself be surprised by what the country or area holds for me. It's difficult to plan anyway; sometimes there isn't any information available about the area."


What are you looking for from the scene and the rider when you fire the shutter?

"I want to tell a story in one image so I prefer to shoot wide. I want to create a certain perspective: to show the viewers where we are, the nature, the trails, the action. I need a good landscape, a good trail, good light and a good rider. If that all comes together, I've got my shot."


What's the creative reasoning behind your usual setup?

"I always shoot in Aperture priority (Av) mode, and I need to make sure the shutter speed is fast enough for action. I use a higher ISO setting to avoid motion blur. I used to shoot a lot with flash, but nowadays I almost never use it. I want to be authentic and photos shot with flash can appear artificial."


What's the trickiest part of a shoot?

"The riders. I can have the best location in the world, in the best possible light, but if the rider sits on the bike like a bag of potatoes, the shot is useless. So, I try to tell a story with a single image. I see what I do more as landscape photography with an additional element – an athlete."

Martin Bissig