2-4-6-8 American Cheerleaders and Football Players
Photographs by Brian Finke
Interview with Kathy Ryan
Essay in Four Parts by Zev Borow
square 4to. pp. 128. profusely illustrated in colour. hardcover. dw. (near fine). New York: Umbrage Editions, [2003].
ISBN-10: 1884167349 / ISBN-13: 9781884167348
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2-4-6-8 is a serio-comic guided tour into the megaphone world of pyramids and liberties, pom-poms and backbends, tackles and touchdowns. Narrated with affection and respect, it snaps and waves like a flag. "Sexy, cute, and popular to boot" describes the subjects of photographer Brian Finke's energetic documentation of the inner life of the American cheerleader. Across the country, deep into the heartland, from coast to coast, and overseas, these smiling and sometimes tear-stained faces reveal the youthful, natural character of quintessential Americana: crowd-pleasing, stunt-building, toe-touching, skirt-flipping, hand-clapping girls and boys in full adolescent throttle. These vivid and culturally seductive snapshots were taken during a two-year period in which Finke went from camp to competition on the trail of the top teams. With their pitch-perfect feeling, these images take you into the win or the loss, the intensity of friendships, rivalries, mentoring, competing, self-image, and self-worth that is the core of adolescence. Complementing the photographs are commentaries from the cheerleaders themselves on the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and the life of Cheer. "There are two kinds of girls," one cheerleader puts it, "cheerleaders and those who wanna be them." But the mysterious allure of the cheerleader underestimates the dedication and professionalism that now define it as a sport. Training several hours a day, six days a week, every week of th eyear - all for a 150-second routing, the top teams work hard and long at the very edge of physical and mental exertion. "If cheerleading were easier it'd be called football," another young champion jokes. Four million cheerleaders are flying, jumping, and kicking in small towns and big cities alike, in the preppy, happy world of young exposed flesh and pigtails.