Jim Dow

Working with a camera that makes 8″ x 10″ negatives, Jim Dow traveled to 25 stadiums—14 American League and 11 National League—and took three exposures of each that together give a panoramic view of the stadium. He chose to photograph empty stadiums, without players, fans, or vendors, because he was most interested in the architecture itself. Baseball fields are more or less regulated. Each has the same dimensions for the diamond and the stretch between the foul lines. Each stadium has a billboard and stands on all four sides. There is nevertheless great variety. The distance to the outfield walls and the nature and height of the walls vary. Boston´s Fenway Park has the Green Monster looming 37 feet high in left field. Chicago´s Wrigley has a bank of ivy that swallows balls missed by the outfielders. New York´s Yankee Stadium and Houston´s Astrodome had the longest distances for a ball to travel out of the park. Other variances are color of the seats (red, blue, green) and the views outside the walls, which can be a mountain range, a park city neighborhood or industrial sites.

Fenway (Boston, 1912) and Wrigley (Chicago, 1916) are the two oldest still existing fields. Ten of the 25 that Dow photographed still exist, although three of those have changed their names.

A stadium, Dow feels, “symbolizes the enduring attraction of the sport itself as opposed to the changing fortunes of the players.” He has been photographing stadiums since 1980, concentrating on the major leagues in the early ´80s, and since 1984, working almost exclusively on minor-league baseball in the United States. “To some degree,” he says, “the stadiums mirror everything from affluence to pretension, or lace of same, of each locality.” One critic wrote that Dow´s stadiums “have all the grandeur and loneliness of ancient ruins.” Dow is aware that the stadiums embody memories as well as dreams. Each player faces not only his own prior accomplishments but every prior player´s feats.

More Sports Exhibitions from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

More on Jim Dow at Janet Borden, Inc.