Sharon Lockhart's Goshogaoka Girls Basketball Team

In Sharon Lockhart’s 1997 image, Goshogaoka Girls Basketball Team Group #1, the viewer is engrossed by the clear, hard-edged collection of four photographs, each depicting young girls decked out in blue and red jerseys participating in a simple game of basketball. Arms out, playfully shoving, and cheering sets the scene. Lockhart utilizes harsh lighting and colors which consequently depict the innocence budding from young girls, even while playing a game of basketball. In a series of four photographs, Lockhart tugs on the viewer’s heartstrings as the air is filled with doe eyed, genuine excitement and the underlying sense of awkwardness and confusion. Cool-toned, bright lighting highlights the vulnerability. Lockhart emphasizes the glowing

Whether red or blue, the colors don’t depict a divide between the girls, but rather friendly competition. Lockhart embraces the cool blue and vibrant red in the girl’s jerseys, as it remains one of the focal points. The black shorts act as an aid for the stronger colors, as do the white t-shirts underneath the jerseys. The second photograph (top right) even goes as far to utilize the white socks and shoes, again providing a helping hand for the brighter red she is cloaked in. With the contrast in colors, one’s eyes are directly drawn to the brightness of the jerseys, and then to the innocent faces of the girls

As an outsider, watching a scrimmage might not bring any enjoyment, but to Lockhart something as simple as children playing basketball, provides a window into a new artistic opportunity. The organic movements captured in Lockhart’s photographs, as simple as they may be, seem natural. In reality the girls were told to act out poses of professional Japanese women’s basketball games. As a viewer, the variety of poses may look normal, but Lockhart wanted to emphasize the vulnerability, innocence, and awkwardness of youthfulness, showing that something which initially radiates confidence and bravery can slowly change under a keen