The Artistry of George Grantham Bain - a Home Run Baker photo study

[T206Jim]

Here are two photographs of Frank "Home Run" Baker by George Grantham Bain taken in March 1916 during Baker's first Spring Training with the Yankees.

Batting front.jpg

Fielding front.jpg

The backs are remarkably similar, they were obviously printed together.

Batting back.jpg

Fielding back.jpg

I found this copy of a March 1916 newspaper that displays these images together.

The_Fort_Wayne_Journal_Gazette_Mon__Mar_27__1916_cropped-web.jpg

I also found these crops of the photos in The Library of Congress George Grantham Bain Collection of original glass negatives. They are identified as being by Bain in 1916 by SABR.

LOC Batting.jpg LOC Fielding.jpg

Note the "49" in white on the full and cropped photos of Baker batting and "51" in white on Fielding (the 51 is just visible at the bottom right of the cropped image). Also note Baker's name and “Yanks” are visible in black on the crops but not on the full images. It is also interesting to note the glove on the ground in the batting image and the bat at the extreme lower left in the fielding image.

I believe the full images were printed very soon after being taken and were before Bain blocked out and cropped the player images and added the black lettering for the more commonly seen cropped images.

Here is one more Baker shot from that series numbered "52".

No 52.jpg

Obviously these were all taken together at a photo session. It would be interesting to know whether there are more photos, or more players, in the series given the high numbering on the photos.

I believe they were likely taken in Central City Park in Macon, Georgia where the Yankees trained in 1916. Has anyone seen any other photos in this series or have images of the ballpark in Macon, Georgia circa 1916?

Here is the current resting place for the photos.

Baker-Bain-framed-web.jpg

[Kawika]

Nothing erudite to contribute but just want to express my admiration of these beautiful photographs with a succinct Wow! and my appreciation for this fascinating post. I have a couple of Bain photos from the 1912 World Series and love the ancient baseball moments he captured.

[T206Jim]

Thanks David, it is nice to know these types of posts are appreciated!

[Bicem]

Very nice Jim, I know people love Conlon's work but Bain is my personal favorite of the master photographers.

[T206Jim]

Sometimes you just get lucky!

The_New_York_Times_Sun__Mar_12__1916_-web-net-64.jpg

March 12, 1916 New York Times article with the photo which states it was taken in Macon the past week, Baker's first week with the Yanks, and has the exact tagline "Baker getting a high throw" that is printed on the back of, and taken from, my photo. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Bain must have printed my photos the first week of March 1916.

[prewarsports]

Bain was great because he only worked in one size (actual size) and all of his images are contact proofs. He developed a machine that could automate the process so whatever the size of the negative (4x6 or 5x7) that would be the size of the print. As such there was no loss of detail. He was not nearly as prolific as some of the others that existed at the time, but his images are clean and deep. It also does not hurt that they are baseball card sized!

[T206Jim]

Interesting information Rhys! These are each 4.5 x 6.5

[HRBAKER]

Beautiful photos

[T206Jim]

The LOC had one more Bain shot from 1916, this one of Nick Cullop. It is the same photo shown in the March 12, 1916 NYT clipping above and was taken in Macon as part of the series. It has "22" in white, so obviously Bain shot a series of photos of many of the Yankees on that day.

Cullop-web.jpg

[frohme]

Originally Posted by Bicem

Very nice Jim, I know people love Conlon's work but Bain is my personal favorite of the master photographers.

I have to agree, Jeff - Bain really seems to capture the essence in a certain indescribable way. Apparently, the folks doing T207 thought the same thing, as a few of his pictures are clearly the source for cards in the set...

Tooley and Blanding are pretty much dead-on, others are very close. Those are attached here - there are no doubt other images in his body of work that were the source or inspiration for various cards, T207 or otherwise.

--
Mike

[MVSNYC]

Jim, the fielding photo is just stunning. I love the overall composition, as well.

[Leon]

Nice work again, Jim. Awesome clarity on some of the photos. The one where he is jumping straight up with his glove above his head reminds me of a Ty Cobb Pinkerton cabinet card pose.....