The photographer Giasco Bertoli began photographing tennis courts in the late 1990s in Switzerland, but he doesn’t remember exactly why. The fact is that this past summer he already published the fourth volume ofand the series Tennis Courts (Nieves publisher) and next year the fifth will arrive. More than 200 images of empty tracks portrayed all over the planet. But without knowing for sure the reason for it. “Yes, I like tennis, I play tennis, but I don’t know if that’s enough to have spent 30 years taking pictures of courts all over the world. I don’t think there is any photographer who has spent so long with a series of images, not even Sally Mann with those photos of her family. The children have grown up, ”says the Swiss by telephone while he walks through Paris, the city where he lives.
Bertoli’s snapshots affect the melancholy caused by empty or decrepit sports venues. The photographer tries to take them in different seasons of the year and at different times of the day. The idea, he says, is to create a kind of mental state by viewing them in sequence. That is why he never locates the photo captions, there is no tourist interest in his proposal. “I am more interested in everything that surrounds the court than herself. Sometimes, it’s just a minor in the picture,” she asserts. “There is a certain sadness in these photos. There are no people, because tennis, when played, is like a huge, vivid theater. And I look for something else. Plus the feeling that emanates from that pool at the beginning of sunset boulevard than going to Roland Garros surrounded by VIP areas and sponsors”.
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