Footwork: Where We Gather
Where We Gather joins traditional sports photography with contemporary works by lens-based artist Sheila Pree Bright, whose new series celebrates Atlanta sports culture and uplifts the community that sport engenders. From Atlanta United tailgates to the pitch, Falcons training camp to the stadium, Pree Bright turns her lens to the fans—and through them, to the teams they love—finding togetherness and solidarity in the places where sport becomes tradition and fans become family.
Pree Bright’s work is presented in conversation with two iconic photographs by veteran sports photographer Walter Iooss, Jr. Drawn from the permanent collection, these photographs represent Iooss’s enduring legacy as a top photographer of American sports and athletes. While Iooss focused on the game, Pree Bright finds the game reflected in the passion and commitment of the fans, who march joyously to a stadium through wins and losses, who gather around the grill to share food and conversation, opinions and prognostications, and who commiserate and celebrate together. Iooss captured—with an arguably singular ability—the play that inspired the roar of the crowd. Pree Bright locates the vibrant clusters of fans in the background, each group infused with different traditions, recipes, superstitions, and stories, who join to build the sound of the stadium.
Like Pree Bright’s earlier protest photography in her critically acclaimed book #1960Now, these images describe spaces in which people from disparate backgrounds come together, navigating cultural differences to organize around a common purpose. Here, however, the spaces are seeded with hope and anticipation, with the knowledge that there will always be another game, another season, another opportunity to come together in support of their team and one another. Learn more about the artist here.
With Atlanta taking center stage as a host city for the World Cup, Footwork, an Emory initiative, highlights the importance of soccer to the history and culture of the university, the region, and the world. This exhibition is part of dynamic lineup of programs—on the Atlanta and Oxford campuses—celebrating soccer’s power to unite. Learn more about Footwork here.
