Since the mid-19th century when photography and sports collided, images of athletes have shaped the way many view sports as well as remember them. From capturing heroic wins on international stages to devastating upsets on home fields, the photographic tradition is one rooted in documentarian approach. Spanning team accomplishments to individual athletic feats, these images preserve moments in time, adding visual depth to sports history.
In Sports through the Lens: Essays on 25 Iconic Photographs, historians have chosen and contextualized some of the most impactful sports images from over the years. Published last year by the University of Texas Press, the publication’s selected photographs were taken from 1890 to 2019, spanning a variety of different sports. Presented chronologically, each chapter memorializes one specific moment while building upon the legacy of sports.
The images are diverse and varied, but highlight some of the most memorable moments in sports history, including Muhammad Ali in his 1965 Heavyweight Championship fight, hovering over knocked down opponent Sonny Liston; Secretariat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, winning the race by a decisive 31 lengths; and Michael Jordan at the 1988 Slam Dunk contest, leaping from the free-throw line with the basketball in one hand.
While only 25 images are highlighted in the book, countless other sports images of everyday games to culturally defining instances have been captured since the 1800s. It is that depth Gail Buckland drew upon to curate Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present, which debuted at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016.
Noted as “one of the first museum exhibitions to put sports photographers in the forefront and… the most comprehensive presentation of sports photography ever organized,” the exhibition featured more than 200 works ranging from daguerreotypes to archival pigment prints. The images were taken by 170 photographers, including Richard Avedon, Stanley Kubrick, Edward Muybridge, Catherine Opie, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition, which went on to tour, was accompanied by a catalog of the same title.
The deep history of sports photography celebrated in the exhibition is the same one that LJ Rader drew upon to create the social media account ArtButMakeItSports. Pairing sports images with similarly composed works of art, he has created thousands of comparisons, resulting in his recent publication Art But Make It Sports: Epic Matchups Where Art and Sports Collide.
Published in March by Chronicle Books, the publication features several side-by-sides accompanied by notes contextualizing the pairings and providing art historical information. The selections are conveniently grouped by sport, including a special section on the Olympics.
While these three publications collectively just scratch the surface of sports photography and its history, they approach the topic from different angles respectively, providing varying depths of insight. From entertaining pairings to discerning essays, the books offer a well-rounded overview of the subject.
Sports through the Lens: Essays on 25 Iconic Photographs edited by Maureen M. Smith, Daniel A. Nathan, and Sarah K. Fields was published in January 2025 by the University of Texas Press.
Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present by Gail Buckland was published in July 2016 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Art But Make It Sports: Epic Matchups Where Art and Sports Collideby LJ Rader was published in March 2026 by Chronicle Books.
