Colorsport

Colorsport Images Ltd is a sports photographic archive and agency, containing around 10 million images covering almost 150 years of sport, serving all forms of media outlets. The Colorsport partnership was set up in the late 1960s by photographers Colin Elsey and Stewart Fraser, and they were soon joined by Andrew Cowie.

The agency – as its name suggests - was among the earliest to cover sport in colour as well as black and white, especially football, rugby union and the Olympics.

The business was established in the late 1960s when two sports photographers, Colin Elsey and Stewart Fraser, started to work together. They were initially based in Kings Cross before the business became established at St Peter’s Street in Islington for many years as it continued to expand. During that time Colorsport was the official photographer for the Rugby Football Union and Arsenal Football Club, as well as many sporting publications.

In 2003 the business, which had moved to Crouch End, lost Colin Elsey who died suddenly. At around the same time Stewart Fraser retired.

Colorsport gained new owners in late 2005, notably Nigel Wray, the owner of Saracens rugby club, and David Norrie, a former editor of Rugby World magazine and cricket and rugby correspondent of the News of the World, who became chairman. The business was moved to extensive new head offices in Surrey.

Andrew Cowie, who joined the business in 1972, is still active as a sports photographer and also now heads up Colorsport's library operations.

James Pinniger joined as Chief Executive at the start of 2009 from Reuters. Since that time Colorsport has revamped their online presence and developed a network of international partners. Colorsport photographers were nominated in two categories at the 2012 SJA British Sport Photography Awards, while Cowie's shot of Tony Woodcock's try for the All Blacks in the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final was voted the Sports Picture of the Year at the 2012 NAPA Awards.

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