Al Sweetman 1975

Mike Mandel produced this small photograph, ‘Al Sweetman,’ as part of a larger series appropriating the visual language of baseball trading cards. The trading card emerged in the late nineteenth century as a means of advertising, and by the early twentieth, they had become a collectible item depicting baseball players. Mandel made his own cards in the early 1970s, but instead of athletes, he photographed people from all walks of life. The banality of the everyday is thus elevated, mimicking the way that athletes had been turned into commodities. The black and white image and the bold sans-serif font above the man's head mimic the formal qualities of earlier baseball cards, but the subject matter reflects a shift in values. Sweetman is not a star, but an anonymous person who exists beyond the spectacle of commercialized sport. To fully grasp Mandel's critique, it's helpful to look at his work within the history of photography and the development of consumer culture. By engaging with these frameworks, we can better understand the social forces that shape the production and reception of art.