Stephan Wurth: Tennis Fan

Tennis Fan, by German-born Stephan Würth, illustrates the photographer’s love of tennis over the last 10 years. In black-and-white images, the book captures Stephan’s life as a tennis fan, traveling to tennis tournaments, captivated by anything at all relating to the sport. A departure from his previous Damiani monographs Ikinga (2016) and Ghost Town (2011), Tennis Fan chronicles Würth’s passionate, near spiritual love of the sport. The photographs approach an almost ascetic devotion at times, in stark images of courts entirely absent of players. In other photos, crowds are shot in ecstatic mania over the impossible speed of the competitors. And, of course, there are images of tennis icons such as Roger Federer, head bowed as he leaves the court, trailed by smiling admirers.