Tabitha Soren: Derek Jeter, Last Home Run Ever in Yankee Stadium, Tintype 1582, 2014

In 2002, Tabitha Soren first began photographing a group of minor league draft picks for the Oakland A’s—young men coming into the major league farm system straight from high school or college. Since then, she has followed the players through their baseball lives, an alternate reality of long bus rides, on-field injuries, friendships, and marriages entered and exited, constant motion, and very hard work, often for very little return. A number of the photos in the series are presented as tintypes, unique prints made by exposing the image on emulsion spread over a thin sheet of metal. The use of this antique process serves to further illuminate the art of each player in motion.

Soren has said of the series, “Fantasy Life is a metaphor for all these other fantasies that are part of the American culture: The fantasy that failure leads to success, despite hitting the ball successfully only around a third of the time. The romantic myth of the restless wanderer, even as they cram in 162 major-league games a season. And the central American fantasy that says we have to do something extraordinary to lead a meaningful life.”

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