SPORTING LIFE AS A VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN MEMORY, IDENTITY, AND EMOTION
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https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6549-2306
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore sports photography as more than a technical means of documentation—as a medium through which personal memories, emotions, bodily experiences, and athletic identity are formed. The analysis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from psychology, phenomenology of the body, cultural studies, and sport science. Special attention is given to the role of photography in triggering personal memory and affective responses among active and former athletes, as well as to understanding photography as a visual "memory book" of the sporting life. Two forms of communication within sports photography are considered: mediated communication, which involves the interaction between the athlete and the photojournalist, and immediate communication, in which the photographer intuitively and precisely responds to the unfolding of movement. The paper also investigates the role of the photojournalist as an active interpreter of sporting events, whose photographs shape how the public perceives sport. A central focus is the concept of photography as a psychophysical reactivation of the former self, especially significant for former athletes who, through photographs, relive intense moments from their careers. Examples from sports practice and authorial photography illustrate theoretical concepts and show that sports photography represents a unique synthesis of motion, emotion, memory, and visual art. The paper concludes that sports photography is not merely a document of reality, but a dynamic space in which sporting life is preserved, affectively recognized, and re-experienced through visual representation.
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sports photography, memory, emotion, body, identity, movement, visual representation
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