Charles Hoff

Bumbling around the Internet today I came across a link that mentioned Charles Hoff, and Sotheby's. It turns out that Sotheby's are auctioning some 70 vintage boxing prints from the archive of the New York Daily News. Charles Hoff was a sports photographer with the paper during the 30's, 40's and 50's. He is the only photographer who's work I am at all familiar with. His black and white photographs of boxers are things of sudden beauty. They reveal the depth of compressed inscape below a surface elision of violence and excitement. In boxing, every instant counts, because at any instant a failure to attend fully can have devastating consequences. It is this depth of concentration, and of the reach of consequence, that these photographs capture. There is a book of Hoff's boxing photographs available: The Fights, With a forward by Richard Ford and an accompanying essay by A.J. Liebling, amongst others. Liebling is another one who's work I would never have encountered except through my interest in boxing. He is a tremendous writer who treats boxing not simply as a sport, but as a subculture. I always feel I am in excellent company when I read him. His books include The Sweet Science, and A Neutral Corner, both collections of his journalistic pieces. There is also another book of his called Back where I Came From, which is less concerned with boxing and ranges more widely over his own life. Pop over to http://www.dailynewspix.com/ and have a look at Hoff's photographs, then decide if you want to hunt down a copy of The Fights.