NYAB Event - Simon Willms Exhibition

Simon Willms Exhibition

United Photo Industries

This event has ended.

Young athletes, and Dominican amateur baseball players in particular, are a compelling and recurring subject in Willms' portrait photography. Realizing a career in professional baseball is a long shot that entices scores of youngsters in many Caribbean and Central American countries. These portraits are meant as a tribute to youth and they originate from Willms' desire to explore his own youth and interest in sport. Willms endeavors to represent the strength of character of his subjects, as well as the uncertainty that naturally arise in adolescence.

Major league teams have "farms" in Santo Domingo and San Pedro that source and cultivate new talent. It is at these baseball diamonds that many players hope to realize their lifelong dream of making it to the major leagues. Willms' images were taken at a vulnerable point in many of these young peoples' lives, between childhood and adulthood, their future uncertain. Whether or not they are destined to play professional baseball is yet to be decided; living the dream proves too enticing.

"With this series, I represent the players in context, showing the environment/the world where they play and live. I wanted the final composition to be spare and direct. The results are more similar to formal portraiture rather than sport photography which tends to present its subject in the act of play." - Simon Willms

This series of portraits were made using an old Graflex four-by-five camera that requires a considerable amount of time to set up. This gives the photographer the necessary time to study the subject, the available light, and environment that the subject is in.