Soccer photography, like the sport itself, can produce wildly unexpected — but nonetheless satisfying — results. That’s particularly true of images from the World Cup, the sport’s biggest international event.
Photographers at the 2018 FIFA World Cup have been working almost as hard as the players to capture the game’s biggest goals, wildest turns, and overall visual cacophony. Some of their results have resembled images from “Accidental Renaissance,” a Reddit forum where users share pictures that evoke the composition, lighting and other hallmarks of Renaissance artworks.
An outstretched Cristiano Ronaldo reminiscent of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Somber fans after a loss that could have been carved in stone by Michelangelo. Fans madly celebrating goals as if characters in a nightmarish work by Hieronymus Bosch. These are just some of the World Cup’s “Accidental Renaissance” photos so far.
