Madeleine discusses her work using the FUJIFILM GFX100RF on Sport England’s campaign to help get more women active Madeleine Penfold women, South Asian Muslim women, pregnant women, mothers of children under one and women aged 55 to 74. Obviously, there are cultural factors We Like the Way You Move In Conversation with Madeleine Penfold Interview
that play into that as well – I think it’s less celebrated to play sports in certain cultures. But for that reason, certain women don’t see themselves represented. Q. What is it about this message that appeals to you? A. I can relate to the message in my own way – if you don’t see yourself reflected in mainstream messaging, you start to think you shouldn’t be doing something or perhaps that there’s something wrong with you. You can’t be what you can’t see. Not all struggles are the same, but as a gay, Northern woman from a working-class background, I don’t remember seeing myself in mainstream messaging or having role models to look up to. I remember feeling like football wasn’t a serious career and that loving who I loved wasn’t normal or acceptable. This creates shame. When you start to feel like the world isn’t designed for you, you can understand how other marginalised groups may struggle to feel comfortable participating in something that doesn’t feel inviting to them. When I decided I wanted to be a photographer, my main motivation was to create images that made people feel seen and included. Q. What was your role in the project? A. My focus was photography only. I was working around the main television commercial, which was done by an incredibly talented director called Priya. Priya had spent an important amount of time casting the people for this campaign. After the filmed element, it was my job to photograph these women and capture the group dynamics.
Madeleine Penfold is a UK- based photographer and director whose work focuses on storytelling through impactful and energetic visual media. Specialising in sports photography, it has been her mission to raise the profile of women in sports by framing participants with authenticity and empowering them by creating media that is both representative and inclusive. Q. Tell us about the We Like the Way You Move campaign A. The campaign is the next iteration of the original This Girl Can campaign, which was an initiative by Sport England that came out ten years ago and was intended to get more women and girls active and moving. Obviously, there’s a huge correlation between positive mental health, positive physical health and how much we exercise. So, in 2015, Sport England did a huge campaign that was meant to be very inclusive, showing women of all ages, body shapes and ethnicities getting active in a multitude of ways. This campaign was super successful – it got almost three million women more active in the years that followed. Sport England continued to do research, but they found that the women who that campaign failed to reach – the women who were least active – were those with the biggest barriers to entry, and who didn’t see themselves reflected in any marketing material that encourages them to get active. These demographics include women on lower incomes and from underrepresented groups – Black
14 FUJIFILM Focus Magazine
January/February 2026
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