keepers
I ran across the work of Dutch photographer Hans van der Meer a few weeks ago on twitter. His website features many collections of his work, a couple of them being his series "Dutch Fields" and "European Fields" that feature football (soccer) at play, but are much more about the space surrounding the play. A favorite collection of mine is called "Keepers" which seems to have evolved as a sidebar of the "Fields" projects. He writes about finding locations for his Fields project: "After finding a proper pitch I followed a game from my stepladder or some other slightly elevated position. In that fixed situation I waited with my Fuji 6x9 camera for the right moment in front of me, but half of the time the game would take place on the other side. The goalkeeper and me were left behind and I always found that image of a solitary goalkeeper very touching. I never could resist taking one. In German language they have this beautiful word for goalkeeper: Torwachter. He is keeping an eye on the gate, that open hole, that can look so vulnerable during the game when the goalkeeper has left it. All his mates have gone out playing, he has to stay there." I love how this series captures both that vulnerability and isolation of the goalkeeper, but also the sense of space and surroundings that his "Fields" series capture so beautifully. Check out the full collection here: