Culture
Flash mob
The grassroots competition recognising the year’s best sports photography
Editor’s note: Jeff Merrill is the president of Portland Track and the host of popular YouTube series Tracklandia. He’s here to tell us about Flash, Portland Track’s annual sports photography competition, now in its third year. Shortlisted entries are available in an online auction from 6pm PST Sunday 1 December; they’re also going on show at a gala event in Portland on Thursday 5 December (online bidding closes at 9:30pm PST). Images in this article are from the Flash 2024 shortlist, courtesy of the photographers and Portland Track.
Cover image: Peter Baxter, 'The Beautiful Soup' (Category: Action)
A few years back, we chatted with some of the talented local photographers in Portland and the greater “Landia” about putting together a special evening to showcase their work. It is my strongly held belief that of all the great storytelling mediums that have pushed the sport of running into new areas and to the eyes of new audiences, photography has done the heaviest lifting. It’s baffling how much can be conveyed through a single snapshot, and interesting that a sport defined by movement is most powerfully communicated through still photography.
Baseball had radio. Football had television. Basketball had hype reels.
Track and field has photography.
“The life of a sports photographer is a grind … [and] nobody knows the grind better than the people who are in it with you.”
Jeff Merrill
Flash was born in 2021 with an initial showcase of works by Howard Lao, Cortney White, Tim Healy and Jake Willard. Following that, we wanted to open up the recognition to more masters behind the lens who artfully capture big, grand moments and small intimate ones that define the sport. Howard Lao, Portland Track’s chief of photography, suggested that the sport lacked a real, unbiased photo competition with significant prizes for the submitters. From that seed, we worked to create a competition model where applicants submitted photos in three categories: Abstract/Landscape, Action, and Portraits and Stills. Since 2022, each year our judging panel has selected 10 photos for each category to make up our shortlist. These photos are printed, matted and displayed at a gala event each December as an archival representation of the year in sport.
The judging panel consists of three of the four original photographers who took part in the first Flash (Howard, Cortney and Jake), Portland Track marketing head Matt Parker and two athlete judges. This year, those athletes are Brooks Beast 800m man Isaiah Harris and World Championships silver medallist javelin thrower Kara Winger.
“Achieving the prize of photo of the year has increasingly become a badge of honor, not because some big muckety-mucks say it is but because photographers believe it is.”
Jeff Merrill
One more functional component that makes this event special is that each of the 30 prints on the shortlist are up for auction, with 50% of the proceeds going to Portland Track and 50% going to the photographer. It’s a collaboration where everyone benefits – while track fans get to own a piece of history.
The gala event itself is a celebration of sport and art in the sport’s industry centre. Members of the Portland running community, pro athletes, photographers and brand execs dress up in their finest and mingle through the gallery with a drink in hand before sitting down for the announcements of the winners of each category and the photo of the year.
The life of a sports photographer is a grind. It’s a gig-to-gig reality where future prospects are uncertain and unbridled creativity is balanced with the needs of a job. What has become the best part of the event in my eyes is the sheer joy that each photographer has for their peers when they are recognised. Nobody knows the grind better than the people who are in it with you, and the validation that comes from being recognised by people whose work you admire is like a shed full of dried firewood that will get you through the winter.
In its third year, making the Flash shortlist or, best of all, achieving the prize of photo of the year has increasingly become a badge of honor, not because some big muckety-mucks say it is but because photographers believe it is and, in real Portland Track fashion, it’s an event that gains its meaning because people choose to believe in it. When that happens, we all just have to make sure we nurture it with love and toast the artists! It would be a dark world without them.
Big thanks to Bandit Running for jumping in this year to elevate the event. They’re true stewards of the sport and champions of the culture.
