Masters of the Moment: Sports Photos as Art – Wall Street Journal

‘Xavi Torres of Spain sets off at the start of the 200-meter freestyle heats,’ by

Paralympic Games, Athens, 2004

Mr. Martin wrote numerous letters to the Paralympic Games committee seeking permission to shoot from a catwalk above the swimming events.

From that vantage, he saw that a swimmer at the far end of the pool, Xavi Torres, had taken off his prosthetic legs as he prepared to race. Mr. Martin rushed over, but the swimmer had already jumped in. Luckily, there was a false start and the swimmers were all called back.

“I went to the Paralympics expecting to take lots of pictures showing disability and I ended up taking lots of pictures of sportsmen with amazing ability,” said Mr. Martin.

Mr. Laing or Laine, by

and Robert Adamson
Scotland, 1843

This image of a dapper young tennis player is believed to be the earliest known sports photo. In the mid-1840s, the Scottish team of Hill and Adamson were among the first artists working with William Henry Fox Talbot’s pioneering “calotype” photographic process; their portraits are still considered among the finest made in the medium.

‘Korongo Nuba Wrestling Champion,’ by

Southern Sudan, 1949

Rodger, a pioneering British photojournalist and World War II correspondent, is especially known for his images of D-Day, the liberation of Paris and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the war, he traveled to Africa, where he shot different aspects of tribal life, including sporting competitions such as stick fighting, spear throwing and wrestling.

‘The Catch,’ by

East Rutherford, N.J., November 2014