Shaun Botterill's 40 years chasing World Cup glory, from toilet darkrooms to Instagram fame

Shaun Botterill's been shooting the World Cup since before smartphones existed. Four decades. That's a lot of matches, a lot of angles, and apparently, a lot of creative bathroom solutions.

Back in the day, he'd develop film in stadium toilets. Yeah, actually in the toilets. No fancy mobile labs, no cloud backups, just Botterill hunched over a sink trying to get a shot ready for the evening news cycle. The pressure was different then. You got one chance, basically. No burst mode. No digital do-overs.

These days? Different beast entirely. Botterill captured a photo of Messi that became the most-liked post on Instagram at the time of filming. One image. Millions of likes. That's the modern World Cup game right there—instant, global, viral before you can even finish your coffee.

Speaking with Carly Earl, Guardian Australia's picture editor, Botterill walks through the absolute transformation he's witnessed. The equipment changed. The distribution changed. The whole reason you're taking the shot changed. Back then, you were shooting for newspapers and magazines. Now you're shooting for feeds, for algorithms, for moments that'll get reshared across the planet in seconds.

But here's what's wild: the core skill didn't vanish. You still need to know where the ball's going before it gets there. You still need to read the game, position yourself in the chaos, and nail the decisive moment. Botterill's done that for 40 years through four completely different eras of photography and sports media.

His story's a window into how fast everything's moved. From toilet darkrooms to Instagram dominance. From waiting hours to see your work in print to watching it rack up millions of engagements in real time. Same photographer, same passion, completely unrecognizable world.