Book Review: Baseball’s Golden Age by Charles Conlon

The Author

What intrigues me about Charles Conlon is the fact that when he started photographing baseball he was just a regular guy who enjoyed the game. He then started photographing the game that he loved for pay. The story has a familiar ring to it so you can see how I was hooked. The book really does give you a little backstory on this great artist, but then it gives you his photos.

The Photos

The book is full of great photographs of players during a great time in baseball history. There are many pictures of hall of fame players, but it is this portrait of Babe Ruth taken in 1927 that caught my eye. Conlon photographed all of the famed murderer’s row that season. This photo just speaks to me for some reason. I think that it is the way that the eyes are portrayed. You get an up close and personal view of one of the great’s of the game. Below I have also included his famous photo of Ty Cobb sliding into third base. Action shots were rare back then because of the limitations of the gear. To get a shot like this one is something else. At the time Conlon did not even know if he had made the picture or not. Just to be safe he put a new plate into his camera. Thankfully he had made a picture, and it is probably his most well known photo. I think that I really gained a lot of respect for the photographers of the era thumbing through this book. I also came to realize that the story of the photo is more important than the camera with which it is made. Just think of what Conlon could do with modern equipment.