The Man Behind The Camera – An Interview With Billie Weiss

If you ever did a school project on the Boston Red Sox, odds are your foam poster board was jammed with Billie’s pictures. Billie Weiss is the current Manager of Photography for the Boston Red Sox. When we decided the theme of our latest Salon event was Exploration, we knew Billie would be a perfect fit to speak on our stage.

I was lucky enough to catch Billie following his incredible talk, and interviewed him about everything from how he got into this field (no pun intended), to working at Fenway Park.

Anyone who has worked in photography themselves, or has spoken to someone who has, knows the work goes so much farther than having a fancy camera and an abundance of lenses. Billie recalls the most challenging part of his job to be finding creative ways to shoot the same thing. Billie overcomes his ‘photographers-block’ by experimenting with lighting and filters to change the mood of a picture.

Something I was curious about was the secret parts of his career. Billie tells me something most people don’t know about his job is that he has more to worry about than just snapping the perfect picture. Fenway Park has dozens of photographers on staff for a single game, and Billie is in charge of arranging them meticulously to get a range of shots and angles.

Fenway Park is a hub for family outings and all-around happiness and spirit, however, each team has a rival or an instance of a questionable call. I wanted to ask Billie how the atmosphere of the crowd affects his work. He tells me that one of the many luxuries of having a job at Fenway is that the crowd is always lively, he says “if the crowd is fired up, so am I!”.

To someone who is being used to working behind the scenes and highlighting others, Billie says being in front of the camera today was a lot of fun, and something different. He says that in this day and age, it is important to take a step back and objectively explain what you do in the world and how you make a difference.

Fenway Park is one of the most famous landmarks in baseball, and getting to interview someone with such an interesting role in the environment was an honor of mine. We thank Billie for being an inspiring member of the TEDxBeaconStreet community, and teaching us a little bit more about the American sport!

To see more of Billie’s images, visit