Len Gittleman 1975

Mike Mandel made this photograph, Len Gittleman. It’s a small black and white print, a kind of everyday portrait of a baseball player, though it could be anyone, really. I imagine Mandel in his studio, developing and printing the image in a darkroom, where the photograph slowly emerges from the blank page. The image has that classic photo booth feel, a hint of grainy texture, adding depth and character. Len Gittleman has a beard and cap, and he’s wearing a padded vest and glove. It’s a pretty standard baseball photo, a gesture to the everyday life of a baseball player. It makes me think about the kind of photography that was happening at the time, like the New Topographics movement, where artists were documenting banal and overlooked landscapes. Mandel is part of an ongoing conversation between artists, looking at the overlooked and forgotten and reminding us of the beauty in the ordinary. These unassuming pictures can become important historical documents of a time, preserving them through the simple act of photographic image-making.