“Revolutionary Work” is a series that highlights the people who make the New England Revolution tick behind the scenes, from the equipment room to the boardroom.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – If you’re a Revolution fan, more likely than not, you’ve seen one of Mimi Murad’s photos. Murad works as New England’s digital photography specialist, snapping pictures during training, at games, and at any Revolution event where the players are present.
While everyone has seen her work, not everyone is as lucky to know the person behind the camera.
Murad has been shooting professional sports for years, starting her career in baseball at the Syracuse Mets and working her way up to becoming a content creator for Major League Baseball. Also working seasonally for the National Hockey League at Boston Bruins home games, she’s had her lens in plenty of action.
Growing up, Murad wasn’t primarily a soccer fan, but working with the Revs has instilled in her a love for the sport. Although shooting soccer is very different than baseball, her experience in hockey helped her adjust quickly to the speed of play on the pitch.
While photography is an art, shooting professional sports is a league of its own. For Murad, she’s had to learn more than just the best angles and spots to be on the pitch – she’s had to become a member of the team.
“Having strong relationships with the players is very important, because you need to learn when you can get closer or when you need to back off. It’s all about learning their mannerisms, their moods, and getting to know them as human beings,” she explained. “If they feel more comfortable around you, you can get better photos, better content. They know they can be relaxed. They can be themselves.”
When she’s doing her job best, Murad usually goes unnoticed, blending into the background to get the angles no one else sees. If you look for her, you’ll find her standing at all of 4’10”, running around the pitch pre-game, capturing the huddle, and skillfully dodging balls and players while she’s in the thick of it.
Murad has become part of the flow of the Revolution, but like any player on the pitch, building chemistry takes time. For the New York native, those relationships are a huge part of what makes her good at her job.
“The advice I always give people when they ask me about the job is that players are people, too. I always treat them as human beings first, which they don’t experience everywhere. A majority of their lives is talking about soccer. So, I know the importance of learning about their families or other things they may have going on in their lives,” she said.
Working so closely with the team, travelling to every away game, and hunkering down with her camera every home weekend at Gilette Stadium, Murad roots for a Revs win as much as anyone.
“I don’t know if I get the same feelings as the players, any pre-game nerves, but I definitely get amped up in the atmosphere before a game. Depending on how that game goes, I’m like ‘let’s go, let’s get this win!’ Then I immediately have to figure out postgame where I want to be for that winning shot,” she said. “Maybe I want to run straight to the ‘keeper for a clean sheet, or right to the field to get a player who had a great game. Vice versa, if it was a tough loss, I take a step back. I definitely feel a lot of those same emotions.”
For those inside an organization, winning takes many forms. Of course, the aim is success on the pitch and, ultimately, championships, but wins are made in many more places than on the field.
For Murad, a win could be capturing the reactions to an important goal, freezing the exact moment Matt Turner’s fingers send the ball over the bar, or simply when a player posts one of her photos to their own socials. Those moments may seem small or specific to her role, but it’s the small wins across the club that fuel the energy for big wins on match day.
It’s that feeling of being part of something bigger that keeps Murad's camera pointed toward success.
“I’ve seen so many cool things at the Revs. From seeing players earn their first call-ups to national teams, watching them make their professional debuts, or even doing their first interviews in English as a non-native speaker. There are a lot of moments that make me proud of these players as humans. I love watching them grow as humans,” Murad said with a smile. “It means a lot to be part of this club. We’re a family.”
