Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present

Exhibition Website

May 6 2018 - Jul 29 2018


Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present is one of the first museum exhibitions to put sports photographers in the forefront and is the most comprehensive presentation of sports photography ever organized. Curated by photographic historian Gail Buckland and organized by the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition features more 200 photographs from a wide array of sports around the globe, exposing not only the physical prowess of athletes but universal themes such as aesthetic beauty, teamwork and raw human emotion.Works from daguerreotypes and salted paper prints to digital images capture the universal appeal of sports, highlighting unforgettable moments of drama and excitement from around the globe.

The 170 photographers represented in Who Shot Sports include Richard Avedon, Al Bello, David Burnett, Rich Clarkson, Georges Demeny, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Rineke Dijkstra, Brian Finke, Toni Frissell, Ken Geiger, LeRoy Grannis, David Guttenfelder, Ernst Haas, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Walter Iooss, Jr., Heinz Kleutmeier, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Neil Leifer, Étienne-Jules Marey, Bob Martin, Martin Munkacsi, Edweard Muybridge, Catherine Opie, Leni Riefenstahl, Robert Riger, Alexander Rodchenko, Howard Schatz, Flip Schulke, George Silk, Barton Silverman, and Andy Warhol.

"Today, it is the photographers who give sports its indelible image," says Gail Buckland, who returns as guest curator after the 2009 exhibition Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present. "Seeing athletic greatness, we both recognize our personal physical limitations and delight in bodies and minds taken to new heights. To play and to watch sports is to be in the moment. Still photographers are masters of moments."


Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.
Image: Gerard Rancinan (French, born 1953). Laura Flessel, 2001; Chromogenic print, 31 1⁄2 x 39 6/8 in. (80 x 101 cm). Courtesy of the artist
 

Whether you go or not, the exhibition catalog,  Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present, presents more than 280 spectacular images—more than 130 in full color. These are great action photographs; portraits of athletes, famous and unknown; athletes off the field and behind the scenes; athletes practicing, working out, the daily relentless effort of training and achieving physical perfection. From the creator/editor of Who Shot Rock & Roll (“I loved this book” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times. “Whatever Gail Buckland writes, I want to read”), a book that brings together the work of 165 extraordinary photographers, most of their images heralded, most of their names unknown; photographs that capture the essence of athletes’ mastery of mind/body/soul against the odds, doing the impossible, seeming to defy the laws of gravity, the laws of physics, and showing what human will, discipline, drive, and desire look like when suspended in time. The first book to show the range, cultural importance, and aesthetics of sports photography, much of it legendary, all of it powerful.

  • Photography
  • Richard Avedon
  • Rineke Dijkstra
  • Heinz Kleutmeier
  • Catherine Opie
  • Eadweard Muybridge
  • Alexander Rodchenko
  • Flip Schulke
  • Andy Warhol
  • and others

Exhibition Venues & Dates