I didn’t get a chance to watch today’s match between James Willstrop and Gregory Gaultier, but I heard it was a classic. I’m looking forward to watching the replay on PSA Squash TV.
Anyway I am writing this post to say that Jordan Mansfield’s photo above, from the SquashTV Facebook page, is quite possibly the finest squash action photo I’ve ever seen. Willstrop and Gaultier are intensely focused on the ball, which is not even in the shot. Their arms and rackets are a tangled jumble of lines and angles, like the players are interconnected somehow. The effect even continues through the reflection in the back wall. The lighting is cinematic. The players are framed by the ceiling lights and the white structural pieces of the back wall. You can tell there’s a big crowd watching, but they are completely blurred out and anonymous, putting the focus completely — almost uncomfortably — on the players, who look ragged, tense, scared even. Man, I can’t decide whether they are playing squash or fighting Alien. Either way, this looks like a scene from a Ridley Scott movie. Awesome. Check it out here, large format, with a black background.
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