 © Arthur Griffin
 © Arthur Griffin
© Arthur Griffin
Some of the most famous images of the late baseball great Ted Williams, taken by photographer Arthur Griffin, founder of the Griffin Museum of Photography, are on exhibit at the University Hall Atrium of Lesley University located on the second floor of 1815 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA June 8 through September 3, 2010. The tribute exhibition includes both color and black-and-white photographs of Williams.
"The images represent not only baseball history, but also photographic history," said Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum. "It's a great story; one the public enjoys hearing every time we exhibit these photographs."
In 1939, Eastman Kodak had just created a new color film that it was eager to test. The company contacted Griffin, who happened to be working on a story for the Boston Globe about soon-to-be-named Rookie of the Year, Ted Williams. Griffin headed to Fenway Park with his usual 35mm black and white Contax camera, but he also had his 4"x 5" view camera and Kodak's new color film.
At this point in his career, Williams had not soured on the press and for two hours he eagerly posed for Griffin. With use of color photography in the Globe still a few years away, Griffin worked mainly with his black-and-white camera but experimented (for himself and Kodak) with the color film. The color film was slow and not good for action shots. But Williams, exhibiting his batting stance and swing, was so engaging that Griffin was determined to capture him on film.
Since the Globe wanted only black and white photos, Griffin put aside the color films of Williams and forgot about them for half a century. By the time color photography was being used in the press, Williams' amiability had diminished and he had no time to pose for news photographers. Griffin's photos represent the first color shots ever taken of Williams and comprise one of the largest collections of images of Williams early in his career.
The Griffin Museum of Photography is open Tuesday through Thursday, 11 am - 5
pm; Friday 11 am - 4 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, noon - 4 pm. The Museum is
closed on Monday. Admission is $5 for adults; $2 for seniors. Members and
children under 12 are admitted free. Admission is free to all every Thursday.
For more information, call 781-729-1158. |
