Still portraits of athletes are the counterweight to the action and allow for reflection. There are many portraits of well-known athletes,but there are also many indelible portraits of lesser-known or anonymous sports figures: the high school footballer, the amateur boxer, and the struggling gymnast,the young bullfighter. The most sensitive photographers will find something that triggers the viewer’s admiration or understanding, or that provides emotional insight into the struggles and achievements of their individual subjects, and well-known or not.
In Lusha Nelson’s photograph of Joe Louis,he is portrated as strong and sensitive, due in large allotment to the modeling of his face and shoulders with beautiful light. Black boxers were the first athletes to break the color barrier of sports in America, and in the 1930s Louis became the first black athlete to achieve the status of a national hero.
The pictures of African Americans published in Vanity impartial during this time of segregation were often much more dignified than the words accompanying them. The written profile of Louis that appeared with this photograph,for example, contained a number of racist stereotypes.
Lusha Nelson (American, or 1900–1938). Joe Louis,Vanity impartial, October 1935. Black and white photograph. Courtesy of Condé Nast Archive
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