Photographer Radka Leitmeritz takes the riskiest shots

Growing up in a small town outside of Prague, Radka Leitmeritz discovered her love for storytelling and photography. Tripods, cameras and black flags fill her memories from local movie shoots. Her passion combined with a strong fascination for editorial magazines put her on a path towards photographing for the world's most prominent fashion and entertainment magazines.

Her path has recently taken a new turn toward photographing tennis' greatest superstars.

“I fell in love with tennis and I was just thinking how can I somehow photograph tennis," Leitmeritz told Baseline in an exclusive interview.

Two years ago, Leitmeritz picked up a racquet and was soon captivated by the game and its players. The 45-year-old didn't hesitate to follow her passion, and she soon made her photographic debut in the tennis world.

Leitmeritz is not just any photographer. She's a master of her craft and photographs for the most prominent fashion publications like Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar—the same pages that she once carefully regarded as a teenager. Her success in the fashion world led her to Hollywood, where she shoots A-listers.

With Hollywood stars comes challenges and restrictions to her storytelling instincts.

“It is very difficult. You don’t have the time that you need, most of the celebrity shoots are very fast and very limited in time," Leitmeritz said. "You must stay very flexible."

Leitmeritz is forced to adapt to the limited freedom when she can't shoot in film, pick her team or even choose the location. But the Los Angeles-based photographer says that more times than not, celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, make the process more seamless.

“When I shot her the first time, I just moved from Paris to Los Angeles," Leitmeritz said. "I wanted to work with more celebrities and actors in Hollywood, and one of my first assignments was for the cover of Variety with Nicole Kidman."

Feeling overwhelmed about diving into the new industry, she headed directly to the set and was hit hard with a new Hollywood reality. Unlike fashion editorials, she didn't have the chance to talk to Kidman or anyone involved before photographing. But Kidman's raw beauty and focus helped deliver the most beautiful images in less than an hour.

"The moment she came out and she was in front of the camera, she was 1,000 percent there and she would give you whatever you wanted," Leitmeritz said. "Her presence was so intense, so perfect, and she just did exactly what the camera dreamt. It was magical."

Leitmeritz's experience in fashion and the tricky world of Hollywood has prepared her to take over an entirely different realm: the demanding, fast-paced world of professional tennis.

“I’m trying to break the rules all the time, but it’s very risky,” Leitmeritz said. “I’m not primarily going for the typical action shots, because everyone is shooting action shots. But, at some point you figure out which moment of the game is the most photogenic one."

When taking in Leitmeritz's work, there is something bold and unique behind each photo. It's her risk-taking and sanguine spirit that separates her from the other photographers in the pit.

“It’s not always easy, but what I try to capture is the moments in-between, when there is a changeover, when there is a moment on the bench," Leitmeritz said. "Grabbing a towel or when a player is just sitting and thinking, there are so many moments."

With less than two years under her belt in the professional tennis realm, she's already breaking barriers and knocking down doors by changing the way the world sees players. Fans might have seen WTA stars posting her photos with tagline "WTA x Radka" and the hashtag #HerTrueSelf this week.

“Now it looks like a project, but basically what it was, is I got to work with the WTA," she said. "I got the access to shoot during the whole tournament [at Indian Wells]. All kinds of backstage, court-side, whatever images I could have grabbed."

Before Indian Wells was cancelled, Leitmeritz was raring to go for her first professional all-access tournament experience. She was set to collaborate with the WTA and Racquet magazine with access to every inch of the site from the courts to the locker room.

Her opportunity disintegrated along with the tournament (and tour schedule) so Leitmeritz adapted quickly with only a couple days of player access in the desert.

"In a way it was good because [the players] had more time," she said. "Racquet magazine had a house in Palm Springs about 30 minutes from the site. Thanks to the WTA, a few players came through and it was a beautiful collaboration."

It was only a tiny fraction of the vision Leitmeritz and the WTA had in store, but she hopes to continue it once the tour returns.

“These images are pretty and the players look beautiful, but there isn’t the tournament emotion in it. There’s not the tension before or the sadness after a lost match," Leitmeritz said. “The idea was doing this at all other tournaments, at the French Open, maybe Wimbledon. It was the first time for our collaboration so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was literary jumping into cold water and I loved it!”

The concept Leitmeritz had in mind didn't come to fruition, but the images players have shared on social media plus all of her published work in Racquet offer a glimpse into what can be expected from her in the future.

“If you make people dream a little bit, take them on the journey through your story, that’s really beautiful," Leitmeritz said.

With the world still battling the on-going pandemic, Leitmeritz has a few projects up her sleeve, one of which is tennis related. She's using her extra time to edit, develop negatives, sell limited editions of prints, and finish up a book she's been working on for the past five years.

While the world rests on what seems to be like a very long changeover, Leitmeritz is patiently waiting to return to the court, bend more rules, and serve up dreams one photo at a time.