Cornfields and sidewalks, cracking driveways and bustling city streets — the greatest playing field of all is the one near home, the one where friends know to meet. The uneven goalposts, a familiar smell of pollen, the grass stains clinging to casual clothes: they are nothing but brave, concentrated with ambitious memories of sport. On view through July 18, Santa Monica's Marshall Gallery welcomes A Simple Game, a group exhibition celebrating football (soccer) alongside the World Cup. Its timely execution is harmonious, exploring the global celebration that brings nations together to cherish, cheer, and experience the games. As participants tally up goals as a team, their nations play along with them — watching and waiting, shouting and hollering, as the games unravel over and over.
These portraits are full of adoration, marked with hope, drive, and an honest love of the game. Gerry Cranham's Jon Hollowbread, Tottenham Hotspur Goalkeeper at White Hart Lane, London challenges common expectations of photographing sporting spirit — but this moment, so static, is reminiscent of an audience holding its breath: Will the football go into the net? A flickering moment that feels eons longer, eyes tracing the ball with fierce concentration. The goalkeeper hovers in space, maybe in time, with an electric awe of what may happen in the coming seconds. Whether there is one person or one million viewers on the sidelines, this feels like the epitome of football — tempting the grand applause, bringing the crowd to life. It is this moment, chancing on victory and bearing witness to great entertainment, that draws people together as a crowd, as one force of spirit.
The other photographs offer a new perspective on the game, introducing an international range of football fields used daily, inviting any and all. Thomas Hoepker's Children Playing at the Berlin Wall, 1963 is an image underlaid with powerful resonance. He portrays not only children playing football but their freedom, their life. The hazy yet poignant quality of the film overlaying this image is undeniably important — to recognize a portrayal of freedom and joy as the rights of children. This exhibition reveals something beyond the spectacle of sport, visualizing something more playful: an element that seems to relieve winning of its grip on thrill. Instead, the novelty and epic pleasure remain intact through the simple fact of playing, of the game not being over just yet.
Among many contributors, Steve McCurry, Marc Riboud, Dan Borris, Masao Yamamoto, Israel Ariño, Thomas Hoepker, and Evelyn Hofer evoke a wonderful sense of togetherness — of witnessing football amidst global appreciation. A Simple Game treats football as the spiritual energy emerging from collective experience, capturing the generational awe and magnetism of the event. It is transformative and evocative in the way these images reflect football as a tournament performing at any scale: it needs only one ball, the ground, and people willing to play.
