The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially kicks off on Thursday, June 11, when Mexico will face South Africa at Mexico City Stadium. Throughout the competition, hundreds of accredited photographers will shoot thousands of players from the sidelines of 16 stadiums across the host nations of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
And yet, while the technical aspects of photography have advanced immeasurably during the World Cup’s 96 years in existence, the process – like the beautiful game – really hasn’t changed all that much. Look no further than these images from the very first World Cup Final for proof.
The 1930 World Cup Final
The inaugural World Cup was hosted by then-current Olympic football gold medalist, Uruguay, and involved just thirteen teams – which included just two North American countries, US and Mexico, and four European nations: Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia.
Unsurprisingly, the largest representation was from South America, with seven participants including Brazil, Argentina and the host nation.
A climatic battle at the Centenary Stadium (Estadio Centenario) between Uruguay and Argentina would decide the competition’s first victor, a chance for Argentina to enact revenge on ‘La Celeste’ having lost to Uruguay in the 1928 Olympic final.
It was an action-packed match that saw the hosts take an early lead before a quick reply from Argentina levelled the game at the 21-minute mark.
Shortly before halftime, the Argentines took the lead – but they failed to capitalize on the momentum because, within the first 10 minutes of the second half, Uruguay would equalize, going on to score 2 more goals to seal a 4-2 victory.
The photographs
The first thing I noticed about the black-and-white photographs from the game is that once you get past the image quality, they’re remarkably similar to the images that football photographers still capture today.
In fact, change it to color and make it slightly sharper and I could see the photograph of the match winner from Uruguay’s Héctor Castro (see main image) on the back page of a national newspaper.
Clearly, these pioneers of sports photography were instinctively looking for decisive moments within the game such as goals, celebrations and moments of action. And in a photo of the semifinal between Uruguay and Yugoslavia (above) you can actually see the photographers sitting just behind the goal, dressed in suits and wearing fedora hats.
It’s hard to find exactly what cameras were used during the tournament, but I can see what looks like a large-format camera (possibly a Graflex camera), as well as some smaller devices that are most likely folding cameras.
Today, World Cup photographers are armed with the latest and greatest in DSLR and mirrorless camera technology. There’s even a rumor going around that the Nikon Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S could be in attendance.
So, when you’re looking at photographs of Christian Pulisic or Harry Kane’s match winners over the coming weeks, cast your mind back to 1930 and the pioneering sports photographers who immortalized the very first World Cup tournament, 96 years ago.
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