In honor of Women’s History Month, the Richmond Kickers are celebrating the women in and around the club that help keep the ball rolling and add that extra special something to the club. In this edition, we spoke with Jessica Hendricks, the club’s photographer.
Oliver: What has been your experience as a woman working in a sports organization? And have you had any previous experience in the field?
Jessica: “So I’ve been a photographer about five years. And I’ve been with the Kickers, the whole time. I kind of fell into the role, but it’s definitely evolved into a partnership over the years. I don’t feel like I’ve been treated any differently than a man would have been by the Kickers. I do other sports now too but, for the most part, I feel fine.”
Oliver: Do you have any personal idols within or outside of the field of sports, photography, or media?
Jessica: “The guy in the World Cup a few years ago that got bowled over with the celebration. I think it was the World Cup, he blew up after — his Instagram and social channels blew up after that — but he’s actually a really good photographer. But they’re all over, I follow a lot of European soccer photographers, they’re fantastic. And there’s a ton of them because there are so many soccer teams.”
Oliver: Are there more women photographers out there in Europe?
Jessica: “Most of the women’s sports photographers I follow are American. So there does not seem to be many. It could be that I just haven’t found them on purpose, looking for women’s sports photographers, although there are a couple of Instagram pages and groups that are just about women in sports photography. But male soccer, definitely, the majority of them are here in the US.”
Oliver: I feel like there are more women in broadcast sports now than there were before, Being the face of a broadcast, although that progress has taken a long time, would you say that the future of sports may be showing some progress in terms of equality and diversity?
Jessica: “I would say that some of those sports maybe progressed a little bit more. For football, there’s still the stereotypical sideline female reporter, but the people that are doing the commentary are all male. Maybe because women don’t see that as an option.”
Oliver: What would you say to any other women that may want to get into either the same field or a similar field, covering sports, being around teams and quite literally being in on the action taking pictures at games?
Jessica: “I get hit [by the ball] sometimes, but I’d say go for it. I haven’t had any trouble getting my foot in the door anywhere. I think if you develop your talent and photography behind the lens, that really doesn’t matter what you look like. That doesn’t seem to be a factor in photography as much as it is in other professions.”
Without any question, Jessica proceeded to speak about her relationship with the team, and the special bond she has developed with them and the staff.
Jessica: “I do think that I’ve developed a different kind of bond with the guys because I’m a female. And I’m a little older and I have teenage boys that aren’t too much younger than some of these players. I’ve become almost like a mom figure and I think of them as mine throughout the season even into the offseason. If they stay here, I check in on them and make sure they’re doing okay, and they’re not missing home.”
Oliver: I feel like that helps create a more structured relationship, would you say that maybe helps you do your job?
Jessica: “The relationship that I formed absolutely helps me in my photography. They innately know, the more I’m around them, the more they catch me out of their peripheral vision. And when they’re going to celebrate like this last year — they finally started running towards me for celebration photos. That, of course, makes the better picture.
They’re in general looking out for me. Whereas I’m not sure if I were a guy that would be happening. It would just be like I’m one of the team rather than develop a different relationship if I were a male photographer.”
Oliver: What is something that you look forward to or hope to see from women in sports such as taking on leadership roles or other roles that were typically occupied by men?
Jessica: “I would love to see more female executives and more female sports broadcasters because I think they would do a phenomenal job, and they would develop better relationships with the athletes that are different. They’d be able to get different things out of their interviews and make broadcasts different. I would like that, you know, it would be nice if we didn’t have to ask the question, ‘what would you like to see females do next?’, because it would just be that they could do anything men could do.”
