Jacques-Henri Lartigue was able to capture with energy all the mad-cap amateur sports that his family and friends were involved in the early 1900's. Whether it was motor racing, ice skating or flying early planes he was able to preserve a way of life in an age where sports were fun and had not become the 'semi-sacred' professional rites they now are.
 
Some photographers such as Leni Riefenstahl, Annie Leibovitz and Jason Bell have sought out the greatest athletes and created shots of them at the very moment of their maximum effort or later in the formal construct of a studio.
 
Each sport has a group of passionate photographers who concentrate on mastering the techniques required to capture and in some cases glorify what is unique about their chosen sport. For example:

• American football - Walter Iooss Jr. and his work for 'Sports Illustrated', Eric Payson.
• Boxing - James Fox, Kurt Markus, Neil Leifer or Kathy Suder from her series 'Knock Out' in the 1990's.
• Diving - Norbert Wu, David Doubilet
• Golf - Walter Iooss Jr.
• Professional cycling - Graham Watson
• Skateboarding - Ed Templeton
• Surfing - Woody Woodworth, Dennis Junor, Jeff Devine, Michael Halsband

These photographers are known through the books and specialist magazines but rarely feature in the classic histories of photography. Their speciality has the curse of making them masters within their own field but little known outside it.