Museum photo exhibit captures Durham Bulls

The project, Bull City Summer, will debut at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Sunday. It documented the 72 home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park last year.

“Part of what I was doing was getting little snippets of people’s stories,” said Leah Sobsey, a Chapel Hill photographer whose work is featured in the exhibit.

Her photos showcase the diversity of the crowd, capturing fans and their families.

Sobsey also captured family life closer to the field, photographing player Shelley Duncan and his young twins.

“They have to sit still, which is sort of a challenging process, but they were great,” Sobsey said.

The exhibit offers a glimpse into the routine of the Bulls and the community that cheers them on, museum officials said.

“The idea of community is very important to us at the North Carolina Museum of Art,” said Lawrence J. Wheeler, the museum’s director.

“When I heard about this fascinating project portraying the traditions, community and art of baseball – all documented in photographs by some of the finest local and international artists – I knew the museum had to be involved.”

The exhibit includes large group photos of the fans, portraits of the players in the outfield and prints depicting dents and marks left by line drives on the outfield wall.

The project will be displayed piecemeal at various Triangle galleries throughout the spring in hopes of reaching a broader community.

“Here’s an opportunity to suspend play and look at baseball through the lens of art, literally,” said George Habel, vice president of the Sports Group of Capitol Broadcasting Company, which owns the Durham Bulls and WRAL. “We’ve been playing baseball for 111 years, but this is our first time in a museum gallery.”