Shawn Hubbard: Making the Cut

Shawn Hubbard is an American photographer than concentrates on capturing raw emotions and memorable moments associated with sports. I was given his name by my tutor in regard to the upcoming assignment to evaluate his work.

His style is becoming more and more fashionable in sports photography. Previously the job of a sports photographer was to capture the magic moment of the goal, touch-down, tackle contentious moments such as fouls. Capturing the action was the primary focus using fast large lenses mounted on mono-pods from single positions, and this would be the only images captured....

Now though we seek more and the role of the modern sports photographer becomes more of story teller, capturing moments on and off the pitch in less technicality and more emotional imagery.

Shaun Hubbard's images capture the essence of a sporting day. He has captured some bright and powerful images of NFL American Football, mixing in some traditional images with those off pitch displaying the emotions of players, managers and supporters and behind the scenes shots in locker rooms.

The work of Hubbard I found most interesting though was "Making the Cut", a series of images telling the story of the cheerleaders. Starting at what looks like covering specialist training, coaching, auditions and finally graduating to a match. Not knowing their culture we may be excused for thinking that this is a 'chick' pastime but it is not. The images show the hard work, determination and more importantly the team spirit and drive to be the best. The images also portray a group of individuals that are supportive of each other in their quest to be chosen. This is the attribute of North Americans that I admire the most; their genuine praise and happiness for those that succeed around them even when they themselves may fail.

There are too many images from this collection to show, but hear a few that I really enjoyed.

Images Shaun Hubbard https://www.shawnhubbardphoto.com/Stories/Making-The-Cut