Fifty States, Fifty Ballparks - A Journey Through America's Pastime

Twenty-five years ago, my husband was taken on a journey to show him America. He and his Dad drove over thirty-seven states and saw twenty-one baseball games. What he learnt from this trip was invaluable and I want to bring it to you.

Baseball is the game of America. It cannot be timed or strictly regulated in any way. It is a game of individual achievement and that of team excellence. It involves a simple bat and ball and four "stops along the way" that any child can play in their yard or field. It has overcome great barriers such as race and gender. It continues to evolve with the American people.
With "Fifty States, Fifty Ballparks...", I want to bring the game to people. Baseball is not just the team on the field, but the ticket person, the painted fan in the stands, the old man sketching from the decks and the staff that work each stadium game. It takes more than a team to make a game. I want people to see the full culture of baseball of this decade before the end of the old stadiums.
Next season, the Yankees will have a new stadium. The beginning and end of an era in baseball. I want to photograph the stadiums and their people before this generation of green fields are gone. And I want people to see the diversity of America that my husband learnt as a kid one summer twenty-five years ago, through the lens of a camera. His were caught in a few polaroid shots. I want to take more-- major league, minor league and college games in one summer and capture what makes us different across this nation, and yet still one people under one great game.

Even though I live in North America, I cannot discover all the wonders that exist here in one lifetime, as in any continent. I originally came from another continent, Australia, and fell in love with Fenway Park and baseball, living in Boston many years ago. Fenway Park was my first "home-away-from-home", a place that made me feel welcome in this country.
Living in a tiny corner of a place and being able to capture your dream assignment of photography for a larger or further place away is a very different matter. We all have dreams as artists, and visions we wish to share with people in the way we now best of all -- through the lens of a camera.

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