Siesta Key Beach, Football
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
— Henry David Thoreau
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What I saw when I encountered these men playing with a football on Siesta Key Beach, was Martin Munkacsi’s iconic 1930 photograph, Four Boys at Lake Tanganyika.
In his day, Martin Munkacsi was a famous Hungarian photographer who specialized in action, sport, and fashion. His iconic photo of boys running into the surf inspired Henry Cartier-Bresson to comment: “I suddenly understood that photography can fix eternity in a moment” and this influenced him to coin the term The Decisive Moment.
The scene in this picture is one of raw, youthful energy, fast and unpredictable. It was a struggle keeping up with them as they ran, tossing the ball around.
Strangely, despite all the action, there appears to be some order to the image. Notice the inverted triangle of figures. Within this triangle are three clusters of three individuals. Three angles (triangle) and three clusters are symbolically perfect for this scene since the number 3 is the classic, representation of strength, stability, and movement to a new wholeness as in ready, steady, go, or hip, hip hooray.
Michael Schneider’s book The Beginners Guide to Creation of the Universe, explores at length the mystical qualities of numbers. As a street photographer, I can only observe with awe and wonderment as the Cosmos reveals itself to us through synchronicities and numbers - and to photograph the scenes of course.
