Sports through the Lens

Thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening. I happily followed the writer wherever he or she led me—to the mechanics of taking the photo, or the context of the moment, or the artistic or compositional aspects of the picture. I consumed these varied, accessible essays in gulps, one or two at a time, with the afterimage of each captured moment burned on to my brainpan long after I’d set the book down. ~Alexander Wolff, former senior writer, Sports Illustrated, and author of Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure

Sports through the Lens is elegant in its simplicity of concept: Have various sports scholars each select a compelling sports photograph—iconic or obscure, from any sport, their choice—and write a short essay about its origin and impact. The result is a wonderful collection that is informative, accessible to the general reader, and engagingly written. Here is that rare anthology that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. ~Gerald Early, Washington University in St. Louis, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Boxing