Fox Sports Photos 2005

OK. We all know that I’m a big women’s sports fan. I also accept that, for whatever reason, men’s sports get the lion’s share of the coverage. Even so, the review on Fox Sports of their 2005 year in pictures (link) couldn’t help but raise my hackles (for which the Fox Sports people are quivering, I’m sure).

What is it this time? Of the fifty photos presented, one is of golfer Michelle Wie, and two are of Indy-car racer Danica Patrick. That they are represented isn’t an issue–it’s that on a site purporting to be about sports (not just men’s sports) there is only a 4% representation (I’m counting Danica’s two pics as showing only one athlete). In all of the world of sports, there weren’t maybe two or three more images of female athletes also worthy of coverage? Please…

I also have another issue unrelated to gender (yes…I’ll wait while you scrape yourselves off the floor). It has to do with these "outstanding photo" roundups. I was a sports photographer through most of the 1980s, and I can tell you that most of the photos that make these lists aren’t really noteworthy as photographs. It seems to me that for an image to be worthy of merit, it must also stand on its own without requiring the memories of the viewer to add to the "specialness". Agassi and Federer playing tennis on a Dubai heliport (link)…that’s a photo. Shaun Gossman working a wave (link)…that’s a photo. Unfortunately, so many of the others in the list are nothing more than reportage. They are, in and of themselves, boring without their context. I mean, seriously, that image of Brandi Chastain having ripped off her jersey at the 1999 Women’s World Cup pretty much covers the thousand words (or more) that it’s worth.

Over the years I visit places where readers/fans vote on "best images" in a sort of bracket like it’s a sporting event. These irk me no end. They vote for the context more often than the content. These aren’t supposed to be about the best remembered moment, but about the best picture. I’m come to expect this shortsightedness on public sites, but when you have professionals (e.g. at Fox Sports) doing this…well, it just makes me sad.