The lensman talks his love of tennis and the motivations for the subjects of his work.

German-born photographer Stephan W&uuml;rth has been a self-described tennis &ldquo;superfan&quot; ever since he took interest in the sport at the age of seven. &nbsp;Since then, he has turned that&nbsp;obsession into a career, dedicating himself to a sport that seems to care about him just as much as he cares about it. &nbsp;Photographing the likes of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, among other famous subjects, W&uuml;rth has demonstrated his capabilities on and off the court, gaining the support of tennis fans and photography aficionados alike.&nbsp;W&uuml;rth chatted with L&#39;Officiel USA about his most&nbsp;memorable career moments and feelings about tennis. If one thing is clear, it&rsquo;s that the feeling is mutual.

55 Wurth Tennis.tif

What about tennis specifically interests you?

I&nbsp;love everything about it. The exercise aspect of it is great, and&nbsp;tennis courts are normally in beautiful settings. In New York, for instance, there are wonderful red clay courts around 96th Street and the Hudson River. You feel like you&rsquo;re playing in Italy on those courts. I&rsquo;m also really into watching tennis. I&rsquo;m a big Nadal fan and&nbsp;love seeing him fight in every match, whether on TV&nbsp;or in person. &nbsp;

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Why do you find tennis players to be interesting subjects for photography?

I started the tennis project when I became a little burnt out from&nbsp;my commercial jobs. &nbsp;On commercial jobs, everybody has their own agenda. So in my downtime, I thought, &ldquo;I play so much tennis. Why not bring my Leica with me every time I&rsquo;m on the court?&rdquo; &nbsp;From there, I started going to tournaments with my camera, watching TV&nbsp;with my camera, and so on. The project ended up showing every part of tennis that&nbsp;interests me, which is everything!

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Do you have a personal connection to tennis?

I started playing tennis with my parents at age 7 on a vacation to&nbsp;Spain. &nbsp;I really loved it from day one. I&rsquo;m not the most athletic person, so it was always just a hobby of mine. &nbsp;

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You&rsquo;ve been exposed to such tennis superstars as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. &nbsp;Do you have any favorite memories of either of them?

I&rsquo;m a Rafa superfan. &nbsp;Last year, I had front row tickets to the US Open when Rafa played. Being so close to this legend was electrifying. Unfortunately, he didn&rsquo;t finish the match because of a knee problem.

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Did you ever have any aspirations of becoming a professional tennis player?

No, although it seems like the best profession in the world. I do play a lot, and years ago, some neighbors asked if I was a professional player because they only ever saw me in tennis gear. They must have missed my graying hair.

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Who has been one of the most memorable subjects you&rsquo;ve photographed?

Benjamin Hassan in Marrakech is probably one of the book&#39;s two most memorable photographs.&nbsp;For our wedding gift from a friend of ours, my wife and I got to use his house for one week in Marrakech. We invited friends and had an amazing week playing tennis, exploring Morocco, and eating delicious food.&nbsp;I loved [Hassan&#39;s] long pants-style while playing tennis. The second most memorable picture would be Federer walking through the US Open. I was at the tennis tournament before the main draw started to photograph the people. &nbsp;On my way back to the subway to go home, I turned around and Federer with his coach and hitting partner that day (Marin Čilić, who actually won the US Open a few years later) were walking without security to the practice court. &nbsp;It took about 15 seconds for people to storm him for autographs. I just happened to be right in front of him to document it.

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Is there a specific tournament you look forward to attending and&nbsp;photographing?

Monte Carlo and the French Open are on my list. I am trying to make it before Rafa retires!

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What is your favorite aspect of the sport?

My favorite aspect is just playing a match with one of my tennis friends. I keep getting injured lately, so watching is becoming very fun as well, but I need to start doing more weights and get out on the court.

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Which type of photography (film or digital) is more conducive to capturing the essence of the game when photographing tennis?

I really only like photographing analog. &nbsp;I use digital for commercial jobs, but for all my personal projects, I prefer film and mostly black and white Kodak Tri-X&nbsp;film.&nbsp;It is just so nice not to see the image you have taken. This provides the creative freedom to just shoot what you see without second-guessing yourself and redoing the shots.

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You&rsquo;ve used the word documentation to describe your photography. &nbsp;What about tennis specifically necessitates documentation?

I think tennis is very poetic. &nbsp;There is the dance the players are doing on the court and then visually, the courts are very graphic with the rectangle and the lines, but that&nbsp;typically contrasts with very scenic backgrounds. &nbsp;I also like to shoot very natural scenes, be it commercially or for my personal projects. I just like capturing what is in front of me and sharing my perspective.

Photographer Stephan Würth Wants You to See His Perspective

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