Rachel Bach - Photographer

I previously spoke to Photographer Rachel Bach, better know as By The White Line as part of my Football is. Isolation series. After completing the series I felt that we covered some great topics and that it would be great to later share the full story. Rachel opened up about photography and her journey to shooting the Matildas and life during isolation and COVID-19.

Football is. Let's start with the week of the covid shutdown in the second week of March. How did it affect you?

For me, it started in late January. When the news started to break about the virus, I was about to get on a plane to Wuhan, China. It  was the first round of Olympic qualifiers, and the first time I went into Matildas camp as a staff member. The tournament was relocated to Sydney, so we spent a few weeks there.  

Then, in the first week of March I was in Vietnam, again with the Matildas. They had just qualified for the Olympics over there. Two days after I got back, the government announced that anyone returning from overseas would have to go into 14 days of quarantine. So we just managed to avoid that, but I think at that point, it started to become quite clear how  serious the situation was. Then for the rest of March, it was all about W-League finals in Melbourne.

I remember thinking the morning of the first semi-final, I wonder if many people are gonna turn up, and whether they should. We received correspondence from Football Federation Australia outlining new rules for shooting.. Don’t  go anywhere close to players or staff along with the bench side of the pitch, keep your distance - that was mostly the extent of it.

It was a bit of a weird shoot for me. Under normal circumstances, one of my favourite parts of shooting is not necessarily the action, but the emotions and what's happening outside of just the game. It felt really bizarre. 

I wanted to keep my distance, and I didn't want to accidentally break any rules or inadvertently cross paths with anyone by accident. I work a lot with some of  the players, and some of them are friends of mine. So was I supposed to completely ignore someone if they say something to me or approach me. My solution was to  keep my distance. I figured by doing that, you avoid the problem. The second semi final was Melbourne City versus Western Sydney, and from what I can recall  there weren't many people. No mascots, no halftime activations or anything. 

After those semi finals and building into the grand-final - which we knew would be in Melbourne - there was uncertainty about whether  the game would proceed. If it did, would media actually be allowed in? 

I went into the grand final thinking that would  probably gonna be the last thing I shot for a while. I had no idea how it was going to play out.I personally don't love shooting W-league at big stadiums. I understand that the players really (from what I hear first hand), really enjoy playing in these facilities. I completely understand why. But selfishly, as a photographer, empty seats don’t  look great. 

But given that it was a behind closed doors final, it didn't really matter. I reminded myself that  I’d be capturing some pretty significant moments here, regardless of whether there are fans or not. 

Football is. How have you reconciled where you're at with things? You’ve come off a massive year professionally with all of your Matildas work, and now it's like everything has come to a grinding halt. What have you been doing to keep yourself mentally busy over the last three months ?

I was a little bit grateful to have some time to stop and think and rest at the start. I was barely home more than a month at a time for about 15 months. But then you start thinking, what am I going to do? There's no sport. That's an issue. But more to that, I don't know if or when organisations or businesses are going to be able to afford or want to pay people to take photos regardless of whether it's a sport or not. I think for being in the creative industry as a whole, it's a pretty unnerving time.

For me, I had a relatively long to do list of forgotten tasks. So things like updating my website,, making sure my taxes were up to date, organising gear, etc.. That gave me something to do, but at the same time,  only went so far. 

I got to a point where I thought, I'm not working, and I'm not pushing myself creatively in the way that I normally do. I’ve had a bit of consistent work in an area that I very much love. It has been really difficult for it to all stop so suddenly. What's going to happen? We don't really know when sport will start up again, and even when it does, will there be the same opportunities? Probably not. Prior to last year, the majority of my work was voluntary. And whilst I enjoy what I do, at the end of the day, I have to make a living. And it becomes very difficult if the only opportunities are unpaid. 

Football is. What do you think is one of the greatest challenges for you moving forward for you?

Last year, I was very lucky to have two longer contracts, and so there was some safety in that. 

I said to myself at the beginning of this year, I'm going to give myself six months to see if I can make freelancing work. I’ll go out and actively try and find opportunities.

It doesn't all have to be sport.

I just wanted to give myself that time to see if it was really what I wanted to do and something that I was happy with. That plan completely shattered, so coming to terms with that has been really hard. Moving forward, one of the greatest challenges is trying to figure out whether I can still make this work, and how long I give myself to do that. 

Football is. One of the challenges really is about your self confidence, you know, and your trust in yourself? So, when you haven't had the opportunity to try and implement all of those actions, but yet you've not been inundated with work due to the circumstances out of your control.  how does that how much does the head start to play with where things are at and how you pursue things? 

I think self-confidence is a battle for a creative regardless of what's happening in the world or with that individual. I think this is a particularly testing time, it's not that I've gone out and done something wrong and that's why there's no work. It's not having any control. I think that's a huge, huge part of this.  Learning to be okay with that is hard. I don't think there's one way to approach it or to deal with it.

It's a day by day thing. I might wake up one morning and say, okay, I don't have any work today, but I'm going to try and learn a new skill. That's something I've definitely been trying to do. 

I want to make sure that I don’t come out of this not having learned anything. I've done a couple of isolation at home shoots with female footballers. Honestly, the photos that came out of those shoots weren’t as important as the open and honest discussions about how we’re managing during these difficult times. I think everyone's feeling it in similar ways, regardless of what they're doing. And so that's been very much something that I've done for me. I haven't tried to make that into any kind of commercial venture. It's just been something that I felt I needed to do. 

Football is. What's been one of the things that you've achieved during this lockdown?

The first thing that comes to mind is what I’ve  been trying to learn. What can I  now take into whatever happens down the road? One of the big things for me is a skill based thing. It's doing a bit more photography with lighting. It's something I've wanted to do for a very long time. It's been as simple as having my partner or dad, come stand in for me. I'm just trying to learn. Sometimes it's even just and  the self timer.  I think that's been really interesting, because I haven’t done much of that with sport.. One thing I love about sport is that you can't control it. There are no redos. If you miss something, you missed it. I find that really enjoyable and challenging. But by the same token, I actually think having a controlled environment can be more challenging at times, because the pressure’s on you to create. 

Football is. At this stage we are still unsure about when the NPLW is commencing if that doesn't go ahead. What is the impact on you?

The impact would be pretty big. In  the first two or three years of NPLW that I shot I barely missed a round. 

Last year  I wasn’t able to shoot much NPLW, simply because I wasn't in the country for most of it. But what NPLW gives me is a bit more freedom. You don't have restrictions in the same way that you do in other competition. It’s critical in my development as a photographer, a creative and a storyteller.  I often get asked by aspiring or younger photographers how they can shoot the Matildas.The first thing I ask is what do you shoot already? I think NPLW is a fantastic place to start. There are so many gamesI think there's a lot of variety there and a lot of choice. So for me, not being able to shoot that this season, potentially, if it doesn't go ahead affects my ability to keep improving.

Football is. In a way, it's like being an athlete. If you're shooting less. You don't develop. And your development, sometimes goes as fast as how much you're shooting?

If I haven't shot for a few weeks I'll be a bit rusty. Photography is like football. If you don't play football for a few weeks, is your touch going to be off? Yes. It's the same with photography. If I don't shoot for a few weeks, my focus, my balance, everything is off. 

Football is. What have you learned about yourself?

I’ve learned that I actually need photography a lot more than I realised. I find it fulfilling in more ways than just taking a good picture. There's a real social side to it that I don't think I necessarily appreciated.

When I started shooting I just wanted to hide - I was happy to have a big camera, because no one could see my face. No one was paying attention to me. I was always very self conscious. And I think the more I've opened up to the players or whoever I'm shooting, the more rewarding it’s been. I’m  probably gaining a deeper appreciation for that through this time. On the few occasions where I have been able to shoot something, I think it's been so, so enjoyable. It reminds me that I love what I do. It's not just about clicking a button. It's not just about  the end product.

Football is. Would you say it's maybe a form of self expression, that's an extension of your self?

Absolutely. You know, I think it pushes me to be creative and try and figure out what I want to say.  I definitely didn't intend to become a photographer. Not full time, anyway. It was something I mucked around with because I really enjoyed sport, and I really enjoyed design.

Now, I can tell a story. Not through words that you read, or you hear, but through images. As a photographer, your selection of photos say a lot about you. The photos you choose to put out tell the story you want to tell. 

So it definitely says a lot about you as a person.

Football is. When you think of that story telling element and then you compare some of these one on one shoots to shooting a game. How important do you think it is to nail that in some way, visually?

It’s incredibly important.

For me, I enjoy shooting if I have some insight or background knowledge about what I'm shooting. Being prepared is really important to me. It's very hard to tell a story if you're shooting something and you don't really understand what the narrative is in the first place. Although the novelty of shooting  a sport that I don’t have much experience in can feel great, I know I don’t necessarily have a great understanding of what I’m shooting..  I don’t find that as fulfilling. Part  of my challenge is that I might get a really, really boring game of football, or a team that you care about loses a really important game. I then  have to try and tell the story. I'm constantly thinking about the relationships I've built, and how my storytelling might affect that.

I'm not there to tell it as it happened - you can read a match report if that’s what you’re after . I want to tell you something that you couldn't possibly know just from watching the game on TV or from the stands.

Football is. What do you think is the thing you look forward to the most? They keep talking about the new normal, or the covid normal, What do you think that is for you?

That's a hard one. I don't know that I have one clear vision at the moment. I genuinely can't see what my professional life is gonna look like once the new ‘normal’ exists. I guess what I'm looking forward to is some consistency.

I'm looking forward to making sure that what I do is something that I love. It’s a privilege - not everyone loves their job. And so, if I can make that a reality again then that's probably something that would make me pretty happy.

Thank you to Rachel for supplying the images of Kelley O’Hara, Sam Kerr, Chloe Logarzo and Caitlin Foord. You can view more of Rachels work at here website By The White Line