Softcover Swiss binding
ISBN:
9789083612775
Hans van der Meer’s Goalkeepers isolates the most solitary figure in sport, continuing his long-standing investigation into amateur football and the European landscape. Rather than focusing on the dramatic, centralized action of the game, van der Meer turns his lens to the goalie, standing alone at the edge of the pitch in vast, often mundane rural or suburban settings. This work highlights his enduring interest in the intersection of human activity and vernacular geography, using the strict boundaries of the football field to frame the quiet, tragicomic isolation of the individual.
Aesthetically, the work relies on van der Meer’s signature detached, elevated perspective, typically achieved by photographing from a stepladder. This distant vantage point flattens the kinetic energy of the sport into rigorous, objective landscape compositions. The small, solitary figure of the goalkeeper acts as a structural anchor within expansive topographies of rolling hills, industrial outskirts, and modest villages. By stripping away the tight cropping and dramatic motion typical of sports photography, the artist establishes a spatial relationship between the patient, static subject and the overwhelming scale of the surrounding environment.
Published by FW Books, this volume operates as a masterful study in scale, observation, and editorial sequencing.
Hans van der Meer’s Goalkeepers isolates the most solitary figure in sport, continuing his long-standing investigation into amateur football and the European landscape. Rather than focusing on the dramatic, centralized action of the game, van der Meer turns his lens to the goalie, standing alone at the edge of the pitch in vast, often mundane rural or suburban settings. This work highlights his enduring interest in the intersection of human activity and vernacular geography, using the strict boundaries of the football field to frame the quiet, tragicomic isolation of the individual.
Aesthetically, the work relies on van der Meer’s signature detached, elevated perspective, typically achieved by photographing from a stepladder. This distant vantage point flattens the kinetic energy of the sport into rigorous, objective landscape compositions. The small, solitary figure of the goalkeeper acts as a structural anchor within expansive topographies of rolling hills, industrial outskirts, and modest villages. By stripping away the tight cropping and dramatic motion typical of sports photography, the artist establishes a spatial relationship between the patient, static subject and the overwhelming scale of the surrounding environment.
Published by FW Books, this volume operates as a masterful study in scale, observation, and editorial sequencing.