Observations of a Sports Photographer
Last summer, I visited a local basketball tournament in my small hometown of Lebanon, PA. Set in a local park, ‘Sweep the Streets’ is an annual two-day competition between 16 amateur teams. Adults young and old of various skill and fitness levels come together in this celebration of Lebanon’s basketball community.
Two years of sports photography experience had left me disillusioned with the conventions of this photographic genre. I was taught to follow the ball and remain laser-focused on one player at a time. Sports photographers are lauded for their capture of critical game moments, but left distraught after missing a key shot, steal, or dunk. The goal of a sports photographer is coverage of specific events rather than comprehensive observation.
On those two days last summer, I abandoned these tenets and let my eye wander. I did not only track possession of the basketball. I allowed my camera to consider every player on the court — every detail. As the midday sky opened up to reveal harsh sunlight, I focused on shadows and the way light and dark patterns formed against players’ jerseys. Embracing chaos, my camera captured faces obscured by active hands and the swift movement of bodies in motion. I circled the court’s surrounding pavement as games went on, searching for unfamiliar perspectives to shoot from.
The resulting photographs are different from ones I had taken of basketball games prior. More holistic than precise, the images represent noticing an environment in its entirety. It has been over a year since this tournament, and I have since taken many standard photographs of basketball games — always of the ball-handler and the main action of a game, how I was taught. But the experience of capturing this event has stayed with me and made a small yet distinct change in the way I see the world through my camera.
