The game of youth - a selection of photographs by Luke Smalley

I believe that most, if not all, of the images here were published in Luke Smalley's first book, Gymnasium. The photographer stated that they were taken primarily in western Pennsylvania between 1988 and 2000. He used real high school athletes as models, and he pictured them engaged in a series of scenarios, unusual and whimsical competitions invented by the photographer, who often designed and crafted his own athletic equipment, props, and costumes. While resisting any gimmicks to make the images seem "vintage," Smalley was inspired by fitness manuals and yearbook photographs from the turn of the twentieth century. Many of the photographs are mildly homoerotic, but never overt. Rather, he employs his coolly minimalist aesthetic, coupled with an only hinted at nostalgia, to very gently subvert the ideal of the "small town youth," particularly the athletic "all-American" young man.

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Luke Smalley (6 June 1955, Pennsylvania – 17 May 2009, Pennsylvania), American photographer and art director. After attended Hunter College and Northeastern University, he graduated with a degree in sports medicine from Pepperdine University and then worked for a number of years as a model and personal trainer in California. Turning to photography, his work eventually appeared in prominent magazines and many high-profile advertising campaigns. In addition to his gallery exhibitions, three collections of his work were published during his lifetime, and one posthumously. He died unexpectedly - I've found no mention of the cause - at the age of fifty-three.