The first edition of "Tennis In Photographs," focused on the year 2022, came together quickly last October. Editor Cedar Pasori curated 12 photos that she felt represented the season and wrote accompanying stories for each. Designer Angela Lian then brought it all together with an eye for both playfulness and sophistication. Here is a short Q&A with editor Cedar Pasori that provides some background details about the project overall.
Why did you want the first edition of "Tennis In Photographs" to focus on a year or season instead of a theme?
The most simple, obvious reason is that 2022 was an incredibly historic year in tennis! It felt like a period that we’ll reminisce about for decades to come. I didn't want to just move on like we tend to do these days. I wanted to sit with the gravity of certain moments and dissect their meaning without overcomplicating it.
With so many tournaments and storylines constantly playing out, it felt really nice to freeze some of the season’s precious and pivotal moments and suggest a cohesive narrative from photo to photo.
Why did you want to combine photography and tennis?
While tennis is best consumed in motion, as I say in the intro, I think still images help to take in a specific moment, shot, or player. I also think that, in a world that feels like it’s getting more digital, motion-centric, and automated, photography is a radical tool for stillness and reflection. In the context of tennis, a sport with such fine margins, photography can help us appreciate the incredible feats of players. I view what all tennis players do on the court as art, and my goal was to show that in this project.
How did you approach the curation of these 12 photographs?
It was less about the year “2022” and more about the range of players and moments who made it special. I have such genuine admiration for tennis players, how committed they are, and how they show up to compete.
I would say I had about half of the photos loosely in my head once I came up with the original idea. In some cases, I chose the specific frames by leading with the athlete I wanted to spotlight, and in other cases, I led with the moment or what I wanted to highlight from it in writing.
For Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, I knew I wanted to show an image of him kneeling on the clay, which was captured by different photographers from various angles, so there were choices. It was the same for Serena Williams, who I wanted to show making a heart with her hands after her last match. For Roger Federer, I felt like there was only one image I could use, and it was Ella Ling’s iconic photo of him clutching Rafa Nadal’s hand at the Laver Cup. Thankfully, Ella licensed it to me.
While I love the solo images, I particularly enjoyed selecting group photos like the one of Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur together at the US Open trophy ceremony. Though we tend to view singles players individually, we also see them in relationship to one another on a competitive and personal level. The moment when Ons helped Iga fix the collar on her champion’s jacket was really special and presented an opportunity to write about what they each bring to the sport.
Overall, I wanted to pick photos that felt like intimate portraits indicative of each player’s spirit or personality. Only a few players actually have a racket in their hand for their photo, and that was intentional. Sports like tennis teach us so much about life, perseverance, discipline, sacrifice, and so on. While these moments started out as wins, losses, or headlines, if you look a little deeper, there’s always more, and of course also the passage of time that can shift our perspectives.
Why did you put Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz on the cover?
Carlos Alcaraz started as my second choice, but only because I had a stunning image of Serena Williams practicing at the US Open that I wanted to use with a red accent instead of green. Once I found the Serena image and tried to license it, it was just too expensive.
I was fortunate to watch Carlos Alcaraz beat Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Alexander Zverev to win the Madrid Open. Maybe the in-person experience left the biggest impression, but in hindsight, there was no greater evidence that he would actually be able to win a Grand Slam one day. The fact that he managed to do it a few months later at the US Open, at age 19, and also made history when he then became the youngest men's world no. 1, is still astonishing.
I wanted to pick a provocative image, and the quick moment when Zverev poured champagne on Alcaraz’s head felt perfect. Though tennis is no stranger to champagne celebrations, it always feels a bit more F1 to me, in a good way! Choosing a young, fun, and slightly unusual cover to represent tennis in 2022 felt equally like a way of manifesting these themes for the sport in 2023 and beyond.
You run a popular TikTok account about tennis style. Why did you want to make a physical booklet when things are so digital nowadays?
Connecting with fellow fans on TikTok, in particular, has been very inspiring, simply because I find the fandom to be very pure, creative, and positive. It feels like an environment where fans celebrate players and the sport freely and in perhaps more special ways than in mainstream tennis media. It’s less focused on politics and storylines and more about total admiration. I tried to apply that kind of energy to the project along with a succinct format and medium-form writing that perhaps feels more "bite-sized."
I’ve also been thinking about the ways that media and our perceptions of sports continue to change. With the ongoing shifts towards short-form video and digital streaming, along with the growing popularity of other racket sports like pickleball and padel, it feels like changes in tennis are not just inevitable but essential. Since this project focuses so heavily on photography, and encapsulates a period of tennis history, print media felt like the tried-and-true, appropriate way to go about it.
Interview by Sazan Pasori.
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