TAMPA, FLA.- The Tampa Museum of Art is presenting Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present, the most comprehensive survey of the art of sports photography ever produced, highlighting the aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance of these images and artists in the history of sports. The exhibition includes approximately 217 photographs by more than 154 photographers ranging from daguerreotypes and salted paper prints to more than 220 digital images showcasing a variety of different sports from nations around the globe. Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present, is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and curated by Gail Buckland, Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Executive Director Michael Tomor stated, “The Tampa Museum of Art is honored to be able to bring to the Tampa Bay community this incredible exhibition organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as the TMA is committed to educating, discussing, and collecting photographs from the mid-19th century forward. This Modern and Contemporary collection documents achievements in the advent of photography as a fine art, and demonstrates the contributions of important photographers working over the past 125 years. In addition, we are thrilled be able to bring key moments in the history of sports as it unfolded simultaneously in the development of advances in photographic technologies and the digital age.”

Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present includes work by Richard Avedon, Al Bello, David Burnett, Rich Clarkson, Georges Demeny, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Brian Finke, Toni Frissell, Ken Geiger, LeRoy Grannis, David Guttenfelder, Ernst Haas, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Walter Iooss, Jr., Heinz Kleutmeier, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Neil Leifer, Étienne-Jules Marey, Bob Martin, Eadweard Muybridge, Catherine Opie, Gérard Rancinan, Leni Reifenstahl, Robert Riger, Alexander Rodchenko, Howard Schatz, Flip Schulke, George Silk, Barton Silverman, and many others whose pictures may be celebrated but whose names are unknown.

Who Shot Sports is being presented in thematic sections exploring different subjects within the field, including: The Beginnings of Sports Photography, which features a reproduction of one of the earliest known images of an athlete by photographers David Octavius Hill (Scottish, 1802–1870) and Robert Adamson (Scottish, 1821–1848); The Decisive Moment, including Henri Cartier-Bresson’s image of a cycling race; Fans and Followers; Portraits; Off the Field; Vantage Point; In and Out of the Ring; For the Love of Sport; and The Olympics, featuring images from the first modern Olympics in 1896 to the London Olympics in 2012.

Lens on Tampa Bay Sports
On view February 4 through April 30, 2017
Known across the country as a hotbed for professional as well as amateur sports, the Tampa Bay region is blessed with dozens of extremely talented professional sports photographers, who each year capture many thousands of images for local teams and media outlets. Featuring work by eight of these photographers, Lens on Tampa Bay Sports includes some of the best regional sports photographs shot over the last 14 years, from the victories of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs to the College Football National Championship Game played in Tampa on January 9, 2017.

From both thematic and aesthetic standpoints, many regional photographs could fit well into one or more sections of Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present. Rather than attempting to work local sports photography into a wider ranging exhibition, however, the museum has chosen to group them together with one another, highlighting not only the beauty, drama, and emotion of sports, but also the many local contributors to the sports photography genre. Thus, for Lens on Tampa Bay Sports, the Museum invited submissions from numerous photographers, selecting 40 images to display here. Featured photographers include Scott Audette, Mike Carlson, Loren Elliott, Kim Klement, Casey Brooke Lawson, Matt May, Skip Milos, and Dirk Shadd.