History of sports

From athletes staged by the Nadar studio to Clint Eastwood photographed by Xavier Lambours, the paths between athletes and photographers take many twists and turns in the collection of the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie (MPP). Sport and competition, highlighted in this year of the Olympics coming to France, offer a unique occasion to unearth rarely shown images that bring together photographers working on commission or pursuing personal projects, be they writer-photographers like Émile Zola, photojournalists like Guy Le Querrec and Renée Falcke, illustrators like René-Jacques, or visual artists like Gladys.
Since the medium's invention in the mid-nineteenth century, amateur and professional photographers have captured emerging sporting practices, beginning in the upper echelons of society. In the early twentieth century, leisure time entered the daily life of the masses; gymnasts, cyclists, ballplayers and fencers became recurring motifs in photographs. Some celebrate the pleasure of the athletic gesture, while others exalt the quest for precision that leads to high performance. Over time sport was democratised, and an industry was born. The quest for speed and power as absolute proof of excellence took its place in dedicated venues: stadiums and racing circuits.
The product of a partnership between the Jeu de Paume, the MPP, and the city of Reims, A Story of Sport is an opportunity to discover or rediscover the sports photography held in France's national collections. It showcases, like this accompanying portfolio, a wide variety of approaches, gathering over two hundred prints by thirty professional and amateur photographers, from the 1890s to the 2000s.