Mark Leech

Mark started at Sporting Pictures agency in Central London as a darkroom junior at sixteen years old, with an obsession for football but without ever having owned or used a camera.

He started going to matches with other photographers as a film runner, whilst learning the trade on the side by sneaking in a camera to take his own pictures. Within a year he was covering the European Cup Final in Paris.

By 1977, Leech had moved on to start up the agency that would later become Offside Sports Photography. During his career he's covered seven FIFA World Cup tournaments, numerous cricket tests and three Rugby World Cups but now concentrates solely on football photography.

In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Barclays Photographer of the 20 Seasons, for his folio of Premier League football pictures.