Sportscape: The Evolution Of Sports Photography

Sportscape tells the story of how sport has been shown by photographers over a period of 100 years, focusing on the beauty and interest of the photographs and what they are telling us about the development of sport. Many photographs have never been published before; each has been selected to contribute to a fascinating story of social, political and technological development over time as well as being of interest in its own right.

Director of The Photographers' Gallery in London, Paul Wombell's curatorial skills are at the centre of the book. Through his fascinating, surprising and beautiful selection themes emerge from the pictures giving the book a dynamic thrust: from amateurism to professionalism, from wide views to tight focus, black and white to colour, from local to international, everything getting faster and brighter and more dynamic as the century progresses. Sports columnist for The Times and Sports feature writer of the Year, 1999, Simon Barnes's introduction discusses the themes that emerge from the pictures, how the many unusual and original photographs reveal a history of sport and of the twentieth-century via a new route, and draws fascinating comparisons between photographs and event separated by many decades.

The photographs have been selected from the collection of Allsport, the world's leading sports photographic agency and the historic Hulton Getty Archive.