Artwork by Paul Floyd Blake

Paul Floyd Blake: Personal Best

Explore the stories of sixteen young athletes in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Made over a period of five years, Personal Best explores the stories of sixteen young athletes in the build up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The exhibition documents a unique time in British history, and captures the development of a generation of sports people as they grow from childhood to adulthood within the intense world of elite sport. This is the UK premiere and first major solo show of award-winning photographer Paul Floyd Blake.

Beginning in 2007, Blake regularly photographed sixteen young athletes across the UK to create an ongoing series of portraits. The young people ranged in age from 13 to 22 years old, and were training to compete in a range of sports from fencing to tae kwondo, kayaking to marathon running. Some sporting careers flourished, such as that of table tennis competitor Ashley Facey Thompson, who has been selected for Team GB for the London 2012 Paralympics Games. However, others faced intense social and financial pressures that forced them to leave the world of competitive sport. Blake continued to photograph all the young people, irrespective of their path.

Blake’s restrained and subtle portraits offer an alternative to conventional sports photography, with its emphasis on dramatic moments of action. Instead, his images pay tribute to the long slog towards glory that is not usually seen or celebrated. Excerpts from the athletes’ own writings offer inspiring and moving insights into their personal hopes and fears. Blake’s approach emphasises the individual’s own story and motivations beyond the values and structures of competitive sport, as the title Personal Best suggests.

Blake, who won the prestigious Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2009 and had his work exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, says ‘I’ve tried to show ordinary youngsters striving to do extraordinary things, as they move from childhood to adulthood.  My photographs explore how you remain constant and unmoved in your ambition when, physically and mentally, you are going through one of the biggest transformations you are likely to go through in your life’.

Personal Best is one of the outstanding projects granted the London 2012 Inspire mark, the badge of the London 2012 Inspire programme, which recognises exceptional and innovative projects inspired by the 2012 Games. Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games said: ‘The Inspire programme is ensuring the legacy of the 2012 Games starts now as projects like Personal Best are enabling people in Great Britain to make positive life changes.’

Paul Floyd Blake
Alex Craig (Fencing), 2009
Paul Floyde Blake
Ashley Facey Thompson (Table Tennis), 2010
Paul Floyde Blake
Curtis Miller (Fencing), 2010, Paul Floyd Blake
Paul Floyde Blake
Robert Jeffries (Kayaking), 2007 Paul Floyd Blake
Paul Floyde Blake
Rosie Edwards (Marathon), 2008 Paul Floyd Blake

Artists

  • Paul Floyd Blake

    Paul Floyd Blake

    Paul Floyd Blake is a Jamaican-English photographer who started his professional career in photography in 2001, following many years working as a lorry driver and a semi-professional footballer. His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, Manchester Art Gallery; Gallery Oldham; Piece Hall Gallery, Halifax; and Folly Gallery, Lancaster. He has exhibited in group shows including the Foundazione Pitti, Florence; Commonwealth Games Manchester, Zion Arts Centre; Ways of Looking photography festival, Bradford; Sports Lab, Weston Park Sheffield; and the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, London. His portrait of Rosie Bancroft (featured in Personal Best), was overall winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2009, and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Paul Floyd Blake: Personal Best — Impressions Gallery

What our visitors say

“I really enjoyed seeing this exhibition. Thanks so much for the opportunity to share in the lives of these amazing young people.”

“Really enjoyed the Personal Best exhibition. Not only the great photographs (which really capture not just the athletes but also their personalities too) but also how your been able to let your exhibition tell a story, a sometimes sad story. A fantastic contrast of hope and determination contrasted by the devastating result of cuts.”

“I’ve been greatly inspired by their struggles. This body of work is stunning and sincere, thanks and very well done!”

 

Paul Floyd Blake: Personal Best — Impressions Gallery