The photographs in American Sports, 1970 were taken over the course of a single year ? a year in which the United States expanded its involvement in Southeast Asia into Laos and Cambodia and four Kent State University students were shot and killed by members of the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration on the campus. It was a watershed year for popular opinion against the war. Papageorge?s ostensible subject?sports and its role in American life?quickly became charged with the political, racial, and sexual conflicts ignited by the war. Picture after picture is electric with disquiet: military men in uniform parading on the field or relaxing in the stands; cheerleaders rehearsing under the eyes of police; a couple sprawled and embracing in the debris of the Indianapolis 500; and hundreds of fans, drawn in unsettling group portraits, at various stadiums and in the stands of many classic American sporting events.
Papageorge eloquently captured the palpable civic and psychic distress of the time on the faces of his subjects and in their gestures and interactions. This is a remarkable, unexpected body of work?published here for the first time?by a photographer and teacher who has shaped the creative efforts of many of the most influential American photographers of the past three decades.
Tod Papageorge (born 1940, Portsmouth, New Hampshire) earned his BA in English literature from the University of New Hampshire, in 1962, where he began taking photographs during his last semester. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. In 1979 Papageorge was named Yale University?s Walker Evans Professor of Photography and director of graduate studies in photography, positions he continues to hold today.
Aperture?a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to advancing photography in all its forms?was founded in 1952 by six gifted individuals: photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan, and Minor White; historian Beaumont Newhall; and writer/curator Nancy Newhall. With scant resources, these visionary artists created a new periodical, Aperture magazine, to serve photographers and photography enthusiasts worldwide. As the medium flourished, so too did Aperture Foundation, expanding to include the subsequent publication of books (over four hundred to date); limited-edition photographs and portfolios; artist lectures and symposia; and a traveling exhibitions program that since its inception has presented over one hundred exhibitions at major museums and cultural institutions throughout the United States and abroad.
