THE PHOTOGRAPHS  •  A  PERSPECTIVE  •  6/28/94

 

Time has always been a subject of my fascination. The watch I’m wearing gained almost three seconds last year. Fascinated by light and color;  frustrated by the inability to control them in the world; unwilling to give up the challenge of capturing them with a camera.

 

Here find examples of very favorite, “sports action” photographs: Peaks that the eye has no time to discern, images that can be dreamed and drawn but not seen, and only rarely captured. The longest exposure 1/15th second of the swimmer clearly offers a different view from the frozen strobed time sliver of the figure skater 1/2850th second.

 

Interestingly the total elapsed time of all 40 images is slightly less than

 

 

one quarter of one second.

 

Sports have been a subject of interest and ever changing challenge. Photography is a passion which continues.  Enjoy 40 photographs carefully selected from 300,000.

 

My Vision has been inspired by the creative Edward Weston, by the technical Ansel Adams, by imaginative Francisco Hidalgo, by the industry of Arthur D’Arazian, and the sports of David Bier, Jack Sheedy & George Long. John Zimmerman’s wonderful images pushed the technical boundaries of the equipment; they inspired me to tune and race my cameras. Clearly the most profound influence on my vision was provided by Ernst Haas. His images are as bright as was the twinkle in his eye and the light in his soul.  He once told me “we must be very careful of reflections because they make us so quickly a genius.”  He taught me the camera can/should be invisible.  He encouraged music and painting into my pictures.  And he played the sound of bees when he showed me his flower photographs. His camel market picture is the grandfather of my venue collection.

 

A photographer is a pirate.  A buccaneer able to create images that “steal the soul” of an event or subject, capture and see it again & again: and show your friends.  Camera and film give us a way of seeing the unseeable, to look carefully at something that flashed by in an instant.  My cameras have always been aimed at new vision. Show me something I’ve never seen before. I have taught them to become bored quickly.

 

What we’ve looked for has always been the balance of visual elements that pleases,  the most effective light,  the most vibrant color, the most interesting story, the most dynamic composition, the hottest action and on and on: Sports journalism photography defines one right time, the first time. Anticipation rules. The irony: the lens goes black when the mirror rises and the shutter opens.

If you see it, you missed it.