Photographer Nikolaj Møller was in two of the right places (the Italian Open and St. Peter's Square) at exactly the right time, and described the scenes for Racquet:
The white smoke came when I was at the tournament. All of a sudden the screens were filled with the news. But because I was photographing tennis, I felt I couldn’t leave until I got what I wanted. So I left the Open around sunset, and took a taxi towards St. Peter’s. I got dropped off pretty far from the square due to traffic, and just walked against the stream of people leaving after the new pope’s speech ended.
This is not to compare the two scenarios at all, but from a photographer’s point of view the events were very similar—the energy, the fans, the people together. It was really special to experience, and even more so because I revisited both the next day. These two worlds were intercepting, at least for me. And I realized while shooting that in a way it felt like the same story.
My aim for the tennis story was to document the feeling of being at the Foro Italico through photographs. For me, it’s all about the people watching tennis. Not the players or the matches, but the fans, the people watching, the crowds, the setting. I guess that’s a general interest for me when I work. And the same happened when I arrived at St. Peter’s. In many ways I didn’t know what to expect; if it would be too crowded to move, if it would feel okay to photograph. But it was just so euphoric being there; people were so happy and it felt like everybody knew that at that moment they were part of history. Documenting it came very naturally.
I think those hours—as the sun disappeared, walking around the square—were the most pleasurable hours of photographing I ever spent.
Nikolaj Møller is a documentary filmmaker and photographer. Last year, he wrote about his father's grass tennis court for Racquet.
