Snapshots of Modernity: Reading Football Photographs of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay

Abstract

Photographic images of football are not neutral or objective records of the past. Exploring the symbolic dimensions, formal features, and context of production of five photographs taken during the 1930 World Cup, celebrated in Montevideo, Uruguay, illuminates the deep connections between sport and culture in modern Uruguay. Photographers created narrative understandings about football that had broader political and cultural meanings. Rather than simply portraying a pivotal sporting event in the history of football, the photographs of the tournament became a useful modern technology that communicated the achievements of the Uruguayan state during the centennial celebration of its first Constitution enacted in 1830 after obtaining independence from Spain. Ranging from snapshots of the games, silhouettes of footballers, crowds in the stadiums, and portraits of national teams, these images carried important messages about the meaning of Uruguayan citizenship, including affirmations of democratic social experience, accelerated modernization, appropriate masculinity and femininity, and racial belonging.