Why You’ll Never See a Photo Like This Again
Rich Clarkson’s photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, in the 1968 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Final Four semifinal game in Los Angeles is a masterpiece of composition, timing and exposure. The square format is the result of shooting the game action with a Hasselblad – a practice that continued into the early 2000s. But that isn’t what makes this photo historically interesting.
The blue haze that adds such a wonderful ambience to the arena is caused by cigarette smoke. The California Indoor Clean Air Act of 1976 was one of many regulations that started to clamp down on public smoking, and thus, we traded better light for better health. The same blue haze is evident in many historical boxing photos, like the ones made by Neil Leifer.
In 2006, then owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Dr. Jerry Buss, pined for a more nostalgic look in the Staples Center. Thus, the lighting was focused onto the court with very little spill onto the arena seats. USA Today’s Robert Hanashiro captured the scene inside Staples center.
Mar 26, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Joel Berry II (2) grabs a rebound against Wisconsin Badgers forward Frank Kaminsky (44) during the first half in the semifinals of the west regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Staples Center. Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports
And a similar scene inside UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.
Jan 11, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Norman Powell (4) drives to the hoop between California Golden Bears guard Sam Singer (2) and Golden Bears forward David Kravish (45) during the second half at Pauley Pavilion. Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports
The look is more dramatic than a fully illuminated arena, but certainly still lacks the panache of the smoke-filled past.
All of this is true, but one of the biggest changes happening now is the increased sensitivity of sensors and the decreased need and use of strobe systems for photographing big time sports. Getting access to big city sports arenas to hang strobes is something that rarely happens anymore. It used to be common practice for magazines like Sports Illustrated to do this, but with budgets cut and union fees to get access to the building growing, the use of strobes is dying. The hold out is the team/building photographers. But even those are less necessary with cameras that can shoot at ISO 3200 and higher with little noise. That makes these old photos even more special.
I disagree that the look is more dramatic without the blue haze. On the contrary, to me the blue haze adds ‘chroma drama’ coordinating with or even creating the color palette that makes the picture. The ones with the athletes set against an almost black backdrop seem to have less context, less interesting color and lighting, less drama even if they have more contrast.
Just my opinion. Great article, though. A nice eye-opener about how changes in our environment we hardly ever think of can dramatically affect the images we create within it.
Pinning for cigarette smoke is just plain sick.
People say that it was terrible what Europeans did to native Americans. And it was.
But tobacco, an native american product, has killed many more than Europeans killed native Americans. Karma wins again.
I think you misunderstood what tobacco was to Native Americans. It was not a commercialized cash crop to which they added toxic chemicals and marketed to children in order to get lifelong customers. That was all EuroAmerican. Lastly, to equate cigarette smoking with a genocide that killed more than the Holocaust isn’t the best approach either.
Dude at least compare Clarkson’s photo to an image also lit with strobes.
You’re comparing apples to oranges…
Colin Povey, an uneducated troll. Don’t bother with your racism here please. Thank you.
What surprises me is that no numbers are showing up in the scoreboard in Clarkson’s photo. Was his exposure such that it did not record even a hint of lights for the time and score?