Capturing an Expansive Block: Mayo
Visualizing the passion behind the Galaxy’s Victoria Block support and beyond
Mayo captures enthralling and immersive photographic chronicles from the Victoria Block section at LA Galaxy games and beyond. Mayo (@GrainyMayo on Instagram and Twitter) is the second in our series featuring independent artists in the LA Galaxy community.
Full audio:
What is the most powerful thing about photography?
Mayo: Probably being able to capture an exact moment that’s happening, being able to look back - for instance, I mostly capture fans and fans’ reactions at the Galaxy games. So, let’s say I capture a photo right when the Galaxy score - it’s cool being able to capture that exact moment, look at everyone’s faces, their emotions, everything like that.
What is the most artful thing about soccer?
Mayo: Honestly, probably when a team can play like Pep’s Barca, like the whole tiki-taka thing. It becomes a very fluid art in a sense, just how it’s so precise, and they’re working together to create this bigger picture, which you can call art, if that makes sense. That team specifically, their understanding of where everyone is, what the goal is - it’s a very unique art form that obviously many teams can’t reproduce.
What do you shoot with?
Mayo: Right now I’m mainly shooting with my Canon AE-1, which is a film camera. I bought that like 3 months ago. But everything I’ve shot at the Galaxy games have been a Fujifilm X-S10, which is a digital camera. But this upcoming season I’m going to be shooting both film and digital at the games. And then one game somebody’s going to let me borrow their medium format camera, which will be very interesting to see how those come out.
Are there narratives to your photo threads on Twitter?
Mayo: I would call it, I guess, a photo dump. I know I called it that for my Mexico photos. Since you’re only allowed only four images on Twitter per tweet, I did try to group photos that made sense together. In terms of whether they’d be black-and-white or one certain person, I would try to group them together. But for the most part I don’t try to tell any story really, especially when it comes to Galaxy photos. I’ll try to tell a story on vacation photos or when I’m doing street photography.
How did you come to support the LA Galaxy?
Mayo: Yeah, so in, I think it was in 2005, I became a Manchester United fan, so of course I liked David Beckham. So when he signed with the Galaxy, I started paying attention to the league, and now it’s my most-watched league. I love how chaotic the rules are and just all the nonsense with the league, all the monopoly money.
What do you enjoy most about capturing supporter culture, especially in ACB [Angel City Brigade]?
Mayo: Part of it is trying to explain to people that don’t follow the league, or the sport really, about what a supporters section is. Like what we do, what’s involved, everything like that. ACB is its own community, everyone knows everyone, so it’s cool to be able to capture just what we do during games, pregames, away games, and just being able to share that. And hopefully someone sees it and goes ‘hey, that looks pretty cool,’ and will come to ACB and check out a game.
How have you seen ACB evolve over the last few years?
Mayo: I was on the board for ACB in 2016 to 2018, and being on the board then compared to what it is now - one, it’s a full-time job for everyone on the board. And we were fighting for safe standing at the time - it wasn’t a small group of people, but nothing like what it is now, in terms of V Block. So being able to see the idea that we had for V Block actually finally happen, and seeing Outlawz, Ghosts, ACB, Galaxians, all those groups start to work together to create a bigger section is awesome. When I started going to ACB, it was pretty much just 121 - now it seems like more people are willing to go there since it’s just a bigger section, so it’s awesome to see how it’s grown into what it is now.
What would you like to see for the future, in terms of supporter culture at Galaxy games and beyond?
Mayo: Honestly, more people in the sections that are actually chanting or singing or clapping - just doing whatever for the full game. I know a lot of times it is tiring and stuff like that, but there sometimes are a lot of people just standing, watching the game. And I get that’s ultimately what we’re there for, but at the same time, when you’re in a supporters section like that, you’re there to also make the atmosphere in the stadium.
You’re there to amp up the team, get behind it. When the team scores, or they’re putting a lot of pressure on the goal, the atmosphere builds and builds. And we’ve seen it time and time again, once they get that goal, it just completely changes the atmosphere in the stadium.
Do you have any advice for photographers trying to improve their craft?
Mayo: One - don’t take photography classes in college, in my opinion. It’s a huge waste of money. But also, YouTube is your best friend. You can learn anything about anything when it comes to YouTube these days. Things like composition, what makes a photo good in pretty much everyone’s eye, learning about aperture, shutter speed, ISO - just the basic understandings of your camera. Because the more you understand your camera and what every setting does, the more you’re able to picture in your mind what you want to capture.
For example, I have pictures of the drummers in ACB and LARS where it’s like a motion blur - the drum is in focus, but the drummer’s blurry on purpose to show their motion and their speed. If someone doesn’t understand the camera, they can’t articulate how to capture that. So as soon as you understand, ‘OK, I need to set the shutter speed at this, the ISO at this to get the image I want,’ then you’re on the road to becoming a good photographer.
What is your all-time favorite Galaxy moment, and did you capture it?
Mayo: I didn’t capture it, but it was the 2014 Western Conference Finals against Seattle in Seattle. The Juninho goal. I was lucky enough to be there when it happened. That, and winning the cup at home, the 2014 one.
And, sorry one more: I can’t not say the 4-3 game. I didn’t take the picture obviously - I can’t remember her name right now, I apologize - but she was a photographer at the Galaxy at the time and captured me in the capo stand during the game. It’s one of my favorite pictures of me of all time.
You can find Mayo’s work on Instagram, where he posts photography from LA Galaxy games in the days following the match, as well as periodical photo dumps on Twitter. His upcoming photo book featuring his favorite photos from the 2022 season will be available for pickup or to buy at the March 18 home opener vs. Vancouver. Check his links for more details.