Michael Zagaris has been photographing NFL football for almost six decades, attending 44 Super Bowls. Now, he’s sharing his photographic journey with Pittsburgh.
“Michael Zagaris: 60 Years of NFL Photography” is on display at 707 Penn Gallery in Downtown Pittsburgh through Nov. 8.
Presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the exhibit is timed to appeal to visitors for the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh in late April.
But for the broader audience, it situates Zagaris’ work within the wider context of photojournalism and contains the first presentation of silver gelatin prints he created in his home darkroom.
“I’ve always taken pictures since I was little. But I never thought I’d be a photographer,” Zagaris said at the exhibition’s opening on Friday night.
Zagaris, who lives in San Francisco, was also a fixture in music photography, especially during the 1970s.
He came into his career one night when he was hanging out with Eric Clapton, and the rock star fell in love with his photographs. “He said, ‘these are quite good.’ ”
So he ended up photographing some of the most famous figures of the time, from Clapton to Peter Frampton to The Clash. But he also became a photographer for the San Francisco 49ers and caught some of their most legendary moments on film.
One of his favorite moments was Super Bowl XXIII, between the Cincinnati Bengals and the 49ers, as well as the “Sea of Hands” play during the 1974 playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Oakland Raiders.
As the exhibit is here in Pittsburgh, there are plenty of photos of the hometown team as well.
He has favorite Steelers moments, too. “Lynn Swann catching that pass in 1975,” he said, pointing to the photograph behind him that captured the catch. “To beat the Raiders to send them to Super Bowl X. That was a great game. You know, any game the Raiders and the Steelers played against each other, they were wars. They were great.”
The exhibit contains dozens of photographs arranged in grids and rows, each catching lifelike images of players on and off the field. The pictures are evocative and often intimate, transporting the viewer into moments of triumph and historical significance while decidedly centering the human element. There is also a display of different artifacts from Zagaris’ career laid out in the middle of the room.
Zagaris considers himself a photojournalist, bringing people into the worlds of sports, music, fashion and other parts of cultural history over the past decades.
“I’ve always approached from the inside out,” he said. “For me, the camera was my entree into where I was that I wanted to inhabit. It allowed me backstage … in the locker room, on the bench, on the airplanes, and you can see in the photos, I wanted to take places they’ve never been.”
“Michael Zagaris: 60 Years of NFL Photography” is on display at the 707 Penn Gallery in Downtown Pittsburgh and runs through Nov. 8. Details are at trustarts.org.