Customer Reviews

The Art of Sport

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Reuters, whose origins date back to the 1850s, is best known as a news service that provides reports to newspapers and broadcasters around the world. It established the Reuters News Pictures Service in 1985, and the group has become one of the world's leading providers of photos. It employs over 120 full-time photographers and the images they capture are used by roughly 1500 newspapers and magazines worldwide.

This is a beautiful book, with a wide variety of sports included : soccer, American Football, tennis, gymnastics, baseball, skiing, ice-hockey, boxing and cycling all feature. Each photo is accompanied by a short passage explaining the background to the shot. However, the pictures aren't always of the rich and famous : while the likes of Diego Maradona, Ernie Els, Michael Johnson, Zinedine Zidane, Michael Schumacher and even Ben Johnson appear, some of the better photos feature the amateurs and spectators. There's a streaker at golf's British open, herders in Tibet playing outdoor billiards and Jamaica's very eye-catching support from the 2002 World Cup Finals. There's even one from the Sumo ring that's bound to raise a smile. For me, though, the most spectacular shot was taken during Pamplona's famous bull-run. I suspect I'm not alone : one newspaper in Germany apparently ran it under the headline "How well is the photographer ?". The only photos that may put some off come from the world of bloodsports. For example, there's one from the Waterloo Cup (hare thankfully intact) and another from the bullring (featuring a very bloodied bull that doesn't have too long left). However, even allowing for that, this is still a book I would highly recommend.