Fantasy Life

2003-2017

Fantasy Life uses the game of baseball to unpack the role of luck and uncertainty, and heroism and vulnerability in American life. Little league prodigies, high school All-Stars, college superstars who get drafted into minor league baseball lead us valiantly into the series.

And yet, getting drafted is just the beginning of their journey. The majority of these former stars spend years bouncing around the minor leagues from team to team. Sometimes they’re on the roster for a day, or a matter of hours. It’s a chaotic life filled with endless bus rides, cheap hotels, and game after game, each player determined to grab a spot on a major league roster. These photographs track their rise and eventual release from baseball over 15 years, following them into homelessness, coal mining, coaching, insurance sales and other second acts.

America’s striving culture has its roots in the nineteenth-century westward expansion of the country. These baseball players are raised with an irresistible and irrational desire for greatness in the same way that the settlers assumed that they would go out and settle the West.

In Fantasy Life, the baseball players are seeking to overcome ordinariness and achieve a level of individuality that approaches a meaningful life. They sacrifice job security and financial stability to chase a greater reward. However, the reality is that only 6 percent of those drafted ever make the majors. More often than not, the destiny they’re chasing remains a fantasy.

Baseball and tintypes came into the world 11 years apart and this series acknowledges that historical overlap through its unique tintypes featuring bodies in motion.

The series also includes gelatin silver selenium-toned prints and pigment prints, and two sculptures accompany the photographs.

The first sculpture is a tower of shelled peanuts with 6% of them painted gold, providing a visual representation of those players who reach their dream of athletic success. The second sculpture is made of the players’ surgically-removed bone spurs (caused by repetitive motion). The spurs show a constellation of body parts damaged by the dedicated effort it takes to be number one - in sports or in other areas of American culture- and the true physical cost that is borne by that pursuit.

“Net Impact” on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The sculpture is made of bone spurs from the players and other types of bones, netting, resin. 15 Fantasy Life tintypes hang behind it. October, 2024

 
Silver Eye Center For Photography, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2017

Silver Eye Center For Photography, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2017

 
City Hall, San Francisco, California, 2017

City Hall, San Francisco, California, 2017

 
Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

 
Top 6 Percent, sculpture, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

Top 6 Percent, sculpture, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

 
Giving Our All, player's bone spurs sculpture, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

Giving Our All, player's bone spurs sculpture, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

 
Identity Wall, mixed media installation, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

Identity Wall, mixed media installation, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

 
Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 2015

 
Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2017

Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2017

Unique Tintype 0132, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 0132, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 1582, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 1582, 2014

10.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

 
Unique Tintype 16586, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 16586, 2014

10.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 0574, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 0574, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of Pier 24 Photography

 

Unique Tintype 0517, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of the Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA

Unique Tintype 15888, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 15888, 2014

10.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 2243, 2014

Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Unique Tintype 2407, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 2407, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

 
Unique Tintype 11339, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 11339, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Unique Tintype 15581, 2014

10.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Unique Tintype 04051, 2014

10.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art

 
Unique Tintype 50750, 201410.5 inches x 12.5 inches framed as shown

Unique Tintype 50750, 2014

12.5 inches x 10.5 inches framed as shown

Collection of Pier 24 Photography

 
Disposable Cups,  2003 Selenium-toned Gelatin Silver Print 20 inches x 20 inches / 51 cm x 51 cm, Edition of 5

Disposable Cups, 2003

Selenium-toned Gelatin Silver Print

20 inches x 20 inches / 51 cm x 51 cm, Edition of 5

 
Spring Training Motel Pool,  2014Archival Pigment Print57 inches x 43 inches / 110cm x 145 cm,  Edition of 5

Spring Training Motel Pool, 2014

Archival Pigment Print

57 inches x 43 inches / 145 cm x 110 cm, Edition of 5

 
Record High Temperatures, Riverview Stadium, 2003Archival Pigment Print20 inches x 20 inches / 51 cm x 51 cm, Edition of 5

Record High Temperatures, Riverview Stadium, 2003

Archival Pigment Print

20 inches x 20 inches / 51 cm x 51 cm, Edition of 5

 
Pinnacle High School Baseball Field, Paradise Vallery, Arizona, 2014Archival Pigment Print30 inches x 22 inches / 76 cm x 56 cm,  Edition of 5

Pinnacle High School Baseball Field, Paradise Vallery, Arizona, 2014

Archival Pigment Print

30 inches x 22 inches / 76 cm x 56 cm, Edition of 5

The Last Supper, 2014Archival Pigment Print9 inches x 14 inches / 23 cm x 36 cm,  Edition of 5

The Last Supper, 2014

Archival Pigment Print

9 inches x 14 inches / 23 cm x 36 cm, Edition of 5

Night Game, 2013Archival Pigment Print30 inches x 40 inches / 76 cm x 102 cm,  Edition of 5

Night Game, 2013

Archival Pigment Print

40 inches x 30 inches / 102 cm x 76 cm, Edition of 5

Collection of the McEvoy Foundation of the Arts

Rain Delay,  2013Archival Pigment Print16 inches x 20 inches / 41 cm x 51 cm,  Edition of 5

Rain Delay, 2013

Archival Pigment Print

16 inches x 20 inches / 41 cm x 51 cm, Edition of 5

The Show, 2014Archival Pigment Print57 inches x 43 inches / 110cm x 145 cm,  Edition of 5

The Show, 2014

Archival Pigment Print

57 inches x 43 inches / 145 cm x 110 cm, Edition of 5

Collection of the Oakland A’s

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