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InspirationPhotography

Crowded Fields: composite photographs of sports fields that show human patterns

"In the reshuffled time of these composite photographs, play prevails over competition, the stands are empty and the fields are full, whole games are shown out of sequence.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of Pelle Cass

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of Pelle Cass

"I rearrange the archetypes of sports into new patterns," says American photographer Pelle Cass of his Crowded Fields series.

The full-to-bursting images are based on thousands of pictures, brought together in a final photograph that is kind of like a still timelapse. "I change nothing, not a pixel, only select what to keep and what to omit. It all happened just as you see it, just not at the same time."

"My subjects are the lightly attended fields, arenas, and stadiums of college and amateur teams (especially women’s teams) around Boston, where I live," adds Pelle. "I try, in the series, to convey a sense of ecstatic chaos – rhythm, pattern, and bodily pleasure that conspire to turn sports back into a game, one may be invisible to the eye, but clear to my camera."

Pelle Cass is a photographer from Brookline, MA. His work is in the collections of the Fogg Art Museum, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Polaroid Collection, the DeCordova Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He has been featured in Wired Raw File, the Washington Post, Colossal, The Creators Project, and many others. Honours include three Yaddo residencies, a finalist award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and a grant from the Artist’s Resource Trust. Find out more: pellecass.com or follow Pelle on Instagram.

Hundreds of hockey players fill an indoor ice rink in a composite photograph, with empty red seats visible in the foreground and stadium lighting overhead
Youth soccer players in motion across a field during a match, photographed through netting with multiple players overlaid from different moments in time
Composite photograph showing dozens of lacrosse players in white and maroon uniforms crowded across a field with bare trees and a flagpole behind them, creating a sense of ecstatic chaos and pattern
Boston College basketball arena packed with hundreds of spectators and players covering the court in a composite photograph by Pelle Cass showing crowded activity across multiple moments in time
Composite photograph of an indoor swimming pool filled with dozens of swimmers and divers in the water and on diving boards, with spectators in the stands beneath an American flag
Large composite photograph showing dozens of field hockey players in red and white uniforms densely packed across a green playing field, with urban buildings and a tall floodlight in the background
Indoor sports facility filled with hundreds of athletes scattered across a green field and red running track during a composite photograph by Pelle Cass
Hundreds of athletes densely packed across green and red turf in a vast indoor sports facility with industrial ceiling and bright overhead lighting, composited from multiple moments into one chaotic scene by photographer Pelle Cass
Hundreds of people spread across a vast football stadium field in a composite photograph showing layered moments of activity and play
Hundreds of players in red and white uniforms scattered across a football field in chaotic patterns, composite photograph by Pelle Cass
Ice hockey rink densely packed with dozens of players and spectators scattered across the frozen surface and stands in Pelle Cass's Crowded Fields composite photograph
Dozens of divers and swimmers in various poses captured mid-jump and mid-dive above and in a swimming pool, composited together to create layered chaos of athletic movement
Dozens of young swimmers in a crowded indoor pool captured in a composite photograph showing multiple moments of diving, jumping and swimming simultaneously
Indoor swimming pool packed with dozens of swimmers and spectators in Pelle Cass's composite photograph from the Crowded Fields series
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