©William Noland

William Noland: Gambling April 5 - August 25 1995

" I first photographed at the horse races in 1976 in Uruguay, using a 35mm camera. I returned to the subject in 1978 and 1979 at Aqueduct and Belmont race tracks in New York. My fascination was not so much with the races, but with the patrons of the tracks. Unlike spectators at most sporting events, these were extraordinarily intense and active participants, people who invested a surprising amount of energy in calculating bets. Once the race began, gamblers were in a kind of suspension, waiting for the concrete results of their judgements.

I went again to the races in 1990 with a medium format camera and a greater appreciation for the highly charged nature of the situation. Using a larger camera and a square format changed the dynamic. My subjects were more aware of my presense than before. And perhaps more importantly, I found that the square demands from the photographer a more forceful declaration of just what the picture is about. In the resulting images, I began to discover certain human qualities that can perhaps only be revealed in a still photograph.

Since 1990 I have broadened the context of my pictures, but I believe the subject is still gambling. I am beginning to see connections with other events in which something prized, such as money, is at stake. Last spring, I photographed at the New York Stock Exchange, where the principals of supply and demand are played out quite literally--and quite visibly--in the faces and postures of the stock brokers involved. Last fall, I made pictures at a country club fundraising lucheon in Lynchburg, Virginia, for Oliver North's Senate campaign.

I had always thought of these transactions--bets at the horse races, the exchange of shares at the Stock Market, the attempt to influence voters in an election campaign--as merely numbers and figures, as essentially abstractions. Through photography I began to understand that the actual exchanges are very real, and can involve intense human struggles. At work, I think, are elemental, almost primal feelings revealed by gamblers at particular moments, feelings that on some deep level we all share."

-- William Noland