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Hy Peskin

Hy Peskin: Sports Photographer

            Hy Peskin was one of the very first well known sports photographers in the 1930’s and 40’s.  He was born Jewish- American to a very poor family. Peskin had to sell newspaper’s in order to earn more money for his family. The story has it  that he saw a picture of an athlete in one of the newspapers he was selling and he admired the photograph and he was inspired to take pictures just like it. He first accepted a job a Life magazine where he took one of his most famous photographs of John F. and Jackie Kennedy. He then left the job a Life to pursue a different branch of photography. He started taking pictures of the Brooklyn Dodgers which helped him become a more well known photographer. After he was on the map, he was hired as the first on staff photographer at Sports Illustrated. By this time Hy Peskin was revolutionizing the world of sports photography becoming the starting point for all others to come after him.

            Hy Peskin was the first sports photographer to take risks with his photographs and over step the limits that had been put on sports photography. It was custom for sports photographers to stay up in the press box during games and only take far away, large-spectrum shots. Hy had the idea of actually going down on the field and taking more up close photographs in order to better capture the athletes expressions and movements. It is because of Hy Peskin that we have photographs of athletes on a more personal level, rather than them just playing their sport. Although there were other photographers that took pictures of sports before Peskin, none of them could really be classified as sports photographers.  Peskin really set the bar for aspiring sports photographers.